David Lloyd Leisure set to aquire 16 virgin active clubs

London, 7 February 2017:   David Lloyd Leisure, one of the UK’s leading health and fitness club businesses, announced today that it has exchanged contracts to acquire 16 health clubs from Virgin Active for an undisclosed sum.  

The transaction will bring the total number of David Lloyd Leisure clubs to 111 and is expected to complete in the second quarter of 2017.                                   

David Lloyd Leisure (DLL) currently operates 83 clubs in the UK with a further 12 in the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, including its latest club at Aravaca, Madrid which opened last week (1 February). The group’s portfolio includes two clubs in London under its Harbour Club brand, with its Kensington club reopening as its third Harbour Club in June 2017 following a £5 million investment.

Since being acquired by private equity company TDR in 2013, and with the appointment of a new CEO, Glenn Earlam, in 2015, David Lloyd Leisure has embarked on a major programme to improve the quality and services available in its existing clubs.   To date the company has invested more than £120 million in refurbishing and developing its existing estate, including opening five new build clubs, and furthermore is seeing great success stemming from individual clubs’ ability to now provide improved and tailored local services within the overall DLL experience.  

As part of this programme the company is committed to developing the newly acquired Virgin Active clubs to deliver an enhanced members experience which is both consistent with the David Lloyd Clubs brand, and which reflects local member needs.  

The deal also underlines DLL’s aggressive growth strategy in the UK and across key markets in Europe.  This includes both an accelerating programme of opening new clubs – a further five in the last 16 months in Newbury, Rouken Glen (Glasgow), Colchester,  Antwerp in Belgium, and now Madrid; combined with strategic acquisition – like this one with Virgin Active. 

Commenting Glenn Earlam said; “The acquisition of these new sites will be a great move for us, and will greatly accelerate our medium term growth plans in the UK allowing us to concentrate more on our move into European markets.  Most importantly they move David Lloyd Leisure into several important new areas of the country, reaching new local markets and meaning that far more of the UK’s population can take advantage of our health and fitness facilities.

Most importantly, we are committed to investing and developing these newly acquired clubs, which is great news for both team and members at these clubs. We look forward to welcoming them all to David Lloyd Clubs.”

For further information about David Lloyd Clubs please visit www.davidlloyd.co.uk.

Ends

Further Enquiries

David Lloyd Leisure            Liz Bartlett     07484 039373

The Firm                                SallyAnn Wilkinson    07774 415372

Notes to Editors

The Clubs involved are located at Berkshire, Brighton, Clearview, Dorset, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Lanarkshire, Lancashire, Lichfield, Norfolk, Northwood, Surrey, Thorpe Wood, Warwickshire and Wearside.

About David Lloyd Leisure Group

The David Lloyd Leisure Group operates 83 clubs in the UK and a further 12 clubs across Europe, comprising David Lloyd Clubs and Harbour Clubs. It has approximately 486,000 members and employs over 7000 people. This includes an expert health and fitness team of over 2800.