The Gym Group bulks up on membership numbers in first half

The Gym Group on Tuesday announced a rise in membership by 19.4% to 424,000 and the successful opening of six new gyms in the first half of this year.

CEO John Treharne opened his first gym in 2008 in Hounslow which quickly grew to another 20 within three weeks.

In November 2015 the company was the first European gym operator to float its shares in over a decade. The decision paid off as the new investors raised £125m to support its aggressive growth strategy. The group has a total of 80 gyms around the country and aims to continue expanding to another 15-20 gyms in 2016 and 2017.

"This is another strong performance underlining the strength of our business model, the power of our low cost proposition and the success of our roll out," said CEO John Treharne.

Treharne added that trading for the half year has met the board's expectations and profit for the full year 2016 is anticipated to be in line with consensus market expectations.

Net debt was reduced to £2.5m at 30 June 2016 from £7.1m in December.

Shares fell 4.65% to 205p at 1412 BST.