People anxious to stick to New Year resolutions helped gym operator LA Fitness stretch membership to record levels, the company said today.
The London-based group said that successful sales in January had pushed membership to more than 190,000 – an increase of 15% over the last six months.
LA Fitness added in a trading update that it had overcome tough market conditions experienced last year and was now focusing on pressing forward with more club openings.
Economic uncertainty last year caused by factors such as the Iraq war meant that less people were willing to subscribe to gym memberships.
Finance director Richard Taylor said: “January is traditionally the key buying month for us, all the operators budget to sign up more members then.
“We as an organisation are now focused on recruiting new members, clearly that is dependent on us having the right facilities in the right places and at the right prices.”
LA Fitness employs 2,000 staff at 66 sites but recently said the brand could support 100 clubs.
The group said today it was planning to steadily increase its club opening programme during the financial year, funded largely from cash flow.
It recently opened sites at Bayswater in London and Loughborough and is due to open clubs in Cambridge and Edgware, north London, in the summer.
Although the company has enjoyed success with its LA Prime Time subscription aimed at the over-55s, Taylor said this had not had a large impact on the average age of its members.
Its core customers remain 20 to 40-year-olds, particularly at its central London sites.
In October LA Fitness pledged to consider upping the pace of openings after saying its market was “far from saturation”.
Today’s update was issued ahead of the company’s interim results for the year to 31 January, which are to be released at the end of March.
Analysts are forecasting pre-tax profits of £8.5m for the year ending 31 July, compared with £7.2m a year earlier.
Shares rose more than 3% at 188.5p this morning.
References: EGi News 04/02/04
