North East gym chain bulks up with launch of "biggest ever" site

A North East gym chain has announced that it has launched its “biggest ever” site after a £250k investment.

OneGym, which is headquartered in County Durham, has launched a new 24/7 fitness facility in Stockton, at the Portrack Lane Retail Park.

The new gym, which is 20,000 sq ft, comes following £250k of investment from the North East Growth Capital Fund Loan Fund supported by the European Regional Development Fund, through NEL Fund Managers.

The launch of the site has created eight jobs in the area, bringing OneGym’s workforce to 40 across its five facilities.

The company said that it is now working on plans to open two further North East gyms before the end of the year.

Paul Pearson, managing director of OneGym, commented: “We’d originally planned to open in Stockton at the end of last year and had everything in place ready to go when the latest lockdown rules came into force, so it’s great to have finally been able to open the doors of our biggest ever fitness facility.

“We’ve chosen Stockton as a natural extension to our territory, close enough to our other gyms to be part of the OneGym network but far enough away to be able to build its own membership base, and the response we’ve had so far has been extremely encouraging.

“We’ve shown that the value for money and high standards of equipment and service that the OneGym brand embodies works really well and hope to be bringing it to two more locations in the North East before the end of the year.

“We’ve worked extremely well with the NEL team over the years and it made clear sense to extend our relationship around this latest location.”

David Thomas, investment director at NEL Fund Managers, said: “OneGym has shown how to make progressive use of investment capital to support long-term growth plans and has developed into a substantial and successful business by doing so.

“The new Stockton gym looks fantastic and it’s great to see how popular it’s already proving with local people.”