Business
Operations and Trading Update
Operations and Trading Update.
About this update from Gym Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n \n \n RNS Number : 5843E\n Gym Group PLC (The)\n 09 November 2020\n \n \n \n \n 9 November 2020\n \n \n The Gym Group plc\n \n \n Operations and Trading Update\n \n \n The Gym Group plc (\"the Company\"), the no-contract, nationwide operator of 183 low cost gyms, confirms that it closed its 167 gyms in England on 4 November 2020, following the introduction of the 4-week lockdown announced by the UK Government on 31 October. The Company's three gyms in Wales closed on 26 October as part of a 2-week lockdown announced by the Welsh Assembly; its 13 gyms in Scotland remain open. During this closure period the Company will manage its cash outflow by minimising operating costs and using the government furlough scheme. It expects its monthly cash burn during closure to be around £6.0 million. \n \n \n Operating in a Covid-secure way\n \n \n · \n Since re-opening on 25 July 2020, the Company has had over 10 million visits with very positive feedback from colleagues and members about the many measures taken to ensure gyms are Covid-secure. \n \n \n \n \n \n · \n Across the UK Health and Fitness sector, adherence to Covid-secure procedures has been strong and in the week ending 11 October industry data shows cases of Covid-19 were only 2.88 per 100,000 visits. This sector-wide data convinced government to keep gyms open in all areas of the UK, including Tier 3 regions, until the most recent announcement of a national lockdown. \n \n \n \n \n \n · \n In recent weeks the Company successfully re-started 24-hour operations in a number of sites and expects to roll this out more widely upon re-opening. \n \n \n Membership\n \n \n · \n The estate re-opened on 25 July 2020 with 658,000 members. 574,000 of these were ongoing paying members; this excludes members who had opted to freeze their membership without charge (\"Free Freeze\") and students whose fixed term contracts had been extended to October/November 2020 due to the initial lockdown (\"Prior Year Students\").\n \n \n \n \n \n · \n Membership grew from reopening until the second half of September, when the emergence of a second wave of Covid-19 meant member levels started to decline with total membership on 31 October 2020 of 639,000. Despite this, over the three-month period ongoing paying members were up 2.4% at 588,000 compared to re-ope...