The UK arm of the Virgin Active health club brand, which opened its first club in Preston in 1999 and now runs clubs mainly in and around London.
Virgin Active UK runs health clubs that combine a gym with studios, pools and spa-style areas. Its UK page uses the tagline 'Live happily ever active' and describes four focuses: strength, stability, stamina and soul. In 2016 it said it would group its clubs into three types, premium 'Collection' clubs, large family clubs and racquets clubs. It also launched Virgin Active RED in 2014, a lower-cost gym for first-time exercisers with touchscreen guidance. The brand is part of the wider Virgin group.
The business was founded by Sir Richard Branson and Matthew Bucknall, and the first club opened in Preston, Lancashire, in 1999. Wikipedia gives 1998 as the founding year in places. In 2006 it took over the UK operation of Holmes Place, and in 2011 it took over the clubs of Esporta, which made it one of the UK's largest club operators. Later it sold some UK clubs to other operators. The company's own page gives no statement of purpose beyond the tagline, so we have not invented one. Dean Kowarski has been group chief executive since March 2022, according to Wikipedia.
Wikipedia says the company's head office moved to London in 2013 and that, as at September 2023, Virgin Active operated 32 UK gyms, 23 of them within the M25. The nine outside London were listed as Salford Quays, Sheffield, Nottingham, Solihull, Northampton (two sites), Chelmsford, Hadleigh and Brentwood. The Virgin website says 43 clubs across the UK, so the figures conflict and the real total may vary. We have not read a current club list.
The pages we could read do not describe the company's culture or its staff. The Virgin page promises 'exciting classes, celebrity-level coaches and quality equipment', which is a marketing claim. A 2016 trade interview with then chief executive Paul Woolf said the company was concentrating on metropolitan areas and putting money into upgraded and new sites, including a Collection club near London's Mansion House. The same report said the brand's three main regions were Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific, so the UK business is one part of a wider international group.
A club operator needs many kinds of people. There are group exercise instructors, personal trainers, swimming and lifeguard staff, spa and beauty therapists, front-of-house and membership staff, club managers, and teams in head office covering marketing, property, digital and people. If you are interested in fitness as a career, the Virgin Active UK careers site is the place to see what is open now.
Website: www.virginactive.co.uk
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