Puma Growth Partners, a leading provider of growth capital to small and medium-sized businesses, has today announced a £4 million investment into NRG Gyms, an award-winning, high-value, low-price gym group founded by Shafiq Ahmed.
The UK fitness market is growing and is expected to be valued at approximately £2.8 billion in 2025 as consumers increasingly prioritise expenditure on health and fitness.
Launched in 2013, the business has expanded over recent years to seven gyms and over 30,000 members across the UK in cities including London, Manchester, Newcastle, and Sheffield.
The company’s success is built on providing a great fitness environment, best-in-class equipment, and excellent customer service at a great value price. All gyms offer a safe and inclusive environment, with dedicated female zones, as well as cardio, strength, stretch and performance zones.
This award-winning customer proposition, coupled with a sophisticated, data-led approach to site selection, has allowed the business to take and defend market share from larger, more established brands and deliver market-leading like-for-like volume and revenue.
The funds will support NRG in continuing to expand its portfolio of gyms across the UK and the use of data and analytics to improve the member experience while creating a technology-led back-office infrastructure capable of allowing the business to scale at speed.
NRG has also recently strengthened its management team with the appointment of Neil Greenhalgh to its Board as Non-Executive Director. A qualified Chartered Accountant, Neil spent nearly 20 years at JD Sports, including five years as Chief Financial Officer. He was highly instrumental in devising and executing the strategy which saw the business grow from a small cap listed business with 330 stores across two countries to a FTSE 100-listed global retailer. He played a central role in JD Sports opening its own gyms, as part of which he led the Xercise4Less gym chain acquisition process in 2020.
