Esporta Health & Fitness Clubs (usually known as just Esporta) was a chain of

health clubs A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, health spa, and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place that houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise. In recent years, the number of fitness and health se ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, which also once owned clubs in Spain. The clubs offered a wide variety of different fitness facilities, including

gyms A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

s and courts for

racquet sports Racket sports are games in which players use a racket or paddle to hit a ball or other object. Rackets consist of a handled frame with an open hoop that supports a network of tightly stretched strings. Paddles have a solid face rather than a ne ...

. In addition they offered a choice of bar food and drinks,

spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (and sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments, which are also known as balneoth ...

treatments and live sporting coverage. On 26 April 2011, after two years of ownership,

Société Générale Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English as SocGen (), is a French-based multinational financial services company founded in 1864, registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby in La Défense. Société Générale ...

confirmed that it had agreed to sell its Esporta health, fitness and racquets clubs to

Virgin Active Virgin Active is a chain of health clubs in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom. History Virgin Active was founded in 1999. Their first club opened in Preston, Lancashire that year. I ...

for £77.5m.

History

After expanding quickly, in 2004 the firm announced their six Spanish clubs were up for sale. Selling all six in 2005, they sold seven UK locations to

: Birmingham, Bolton, Crawley, Chelmsford, Gloucester, Medway, and Rugby. .

Membership

Membership of the club allowed members to use other Esporta clubs for free except for certain 'Premium' clubs. During 2009 Esporta changed this policy, adding a small one-off initial fee to use 'non-home' clubs. However, some clubs continued to offer free UK-wide usage for no extra fee.

Controversy

The company was known for its stringent 12-month contracts and 3-month cancellation periods, which led to complaints in the media.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Esporta Health Clubs and Gym
Health clubs in the United Kingdom Private equity portfolio companies