A County Durham gym business is opening its latest fitness facility on the back of a six-figure investment.
OneGym has used a 拢300,000 investment from the North East Growth Capital Fund to open a new fitness facility at Thinford Park near Spennymoor, close to the Durhamgate roundabout.
The new 24-hour gym is the sixth in the OneGym chain, joining branches in Bishop Auckland, Newton Aycliffe, Redcar, Thornaby and Stockton.
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Each of the firm鈥檚 previous gym openings have been backed by NEL Fund Managers, going back to 2012, and the company鈥檚 management team is now working on plans to open two further gyms in the North East before the end of this year.
The new Thinford Park facility includes studio space, saunas, sunbeds, changing rooms and a range of fitness equipment supplied by Italian manufacturer Panatta.
Eight new full-time jobs have been created in the new branch, taking the total number of people employed by OneGym to 40, with a number of freelance instructors also employed to deliver fitness classes across the chain.
Brothers Paul and David Pearson set up OneGym 10 years ago to offer users access to all the latest fitness equipment and classes without costly add-ons like swimming pools that they don鈥檛 necessarily want to use.
Investments in refurbishing the firm鈥檚 existing sites and adding in new equipment are also being made, with the Thornaby site being next on the list.
Managing director Paul Pearson said: 鈥淟ike every other business in the leisure and hospitality sectors, we鈥檝e experienced some real challenges through the pandemic, but we鈥檝e been thriving over the last year and are looking ahead with real optimism.
鈥淭hinford Park represents an ideal location for the next stage of our development. It can attract members from a wide range of surrounding communities in every direction, as well as from the nearby Amazon facilities, has great transports links and is close enough to our Newton Aycliffe and Bishop Auckland sites to make it an accessible 24-hour option for members there too.
鈥淭he response we鈥檝e had so far has been extremely encouraging, and is further proof that the OneGym brand proposition is an attractive one for North East consumers who want value for money, great facilities and high standards of equipment and service.鈥
Jonathan Luke, portfolio director at NEL Fund Managers, said: 鈥淥neGym is firmly established as one of the leading names in the North East health and fitness market, and we鈥檙e proud to have played a part in the team鈥檚 continuing success.
鈥淗aving access to growth capital through different stages of their development is essential for ambitious North East firms and OneGym is continuing to show how to make great use of what鈥檚 available in the region.鈥
The North East Growth Capital Fund has been designed to create around 790 jobs in more than 70 regional firms over the life of the programme and offers unsecured investments of up to 拢500,000 to established businesses looking to realise their growth potential.
