The MD of Everlast Gyms is steering the business through a process of unification, rebranding and ‘elevation’, rolling out a hybrid model that he believes will take it to UK number one status. He speaks to Kate Cracknell

We know that we’re going to be opening new sites. We know we’re going to be rebranding and relaunching lots of clubs. How many people can say they’re doing that day in, day out?” asks Dan Summerson, managing director of Everlast Gyms. “It’s a challenge, but it’s one that excites me more every day, and we’re building a team that feels the same.”

At the heart of this challenge is what Everlast owner, Frasers Group, calls its ‘elevation’ strategy: a modernisation and premiumisation of the offering that’s evident across the Group’s estate, not just within the gym division.

Under Summerson’s leadership, there’s a clear vision of what that means in a gym context and it draws on his experience of working in both big box fitness – for the likes of Fitness First – and in the boutique sector, including at TRIB3 and BXF.

“We’ve set out to make our gyms feel like a hybrid, taking what we consider to be the outstanding elements from the boutique environment and from the big box environment and bringing them together,” Summerson explains.

Keeping it simple
“One of the main things that works really well for the big box market is how they operate the pricing structure. In line with this, our clubs typically charge £20–30 a month (US$24-36, €23-34), all-inclusive,” says Summerson. “We want to keep it simple, rather than complicating the offering with added extras.

“For that price, members get a valuable product they can see and feel and touch; elevation isn’t just about decorating and making the club look nicer. There’s a really great fitness product, a really great bar and a really great secondary spend product, with smoothie bars, retail and supplements. The Everlast clothing and supplement brands have also been elevated, so it made sense to bring everything together inside our gyms.

“We also have a really good class product. Rather than the typical multi-use studio where you have 40 or 50 different workouts and loads of different instructors all doing different things, we’ve gone for fewer signature programmes with their own brands,” he says. “Cranked is indoor cycling, Hustle is our HIIT class, Haymaker is boxing, Backbone is a strength class, and then we have a mind-body workout called Breathe. We set all the timings, the music and the lighting to keep standards high.”

He continues: “What we’ve taken from the boutique market are some of the design features and class environments that give us that premium feel. We’re giving everyone the opportunity to train in a premium environment, but at a really affordable price.”

“As part of this, we focus on not having any wasted space,” he says. “Ours are big box facilities, but we’ve designed the new offering in such a way that everything has its own place, its own zone.

“We still have cardio, free weight, pin-loaded and functional areas on the gym floor, as in most big box gyms, but even first-time gym-goers can easily identify those zones thanks to our lighting, flooring and kit layout. Then we have our class zones, which we’ve designed to be usable throughout the day, even when classes aren’t on.”

There’s a nod to the Everlast brand heritage, too: “There’s a mural of Mohammed Ali as soon as you come in and hit the stairs, and we have boxing gloves up the stairs too,” he says.

“Then, when you get to the gym floor, the first thing you see isn’t a load of cardio. It’s our boxing class, with a really cool zone that we’ve created in steel and bronze – a zone that’s usable outside of class times as a boxing bag and resistance training zone.

“We’re going to put certain key features in every site we do, and this boxing zone will be one of them. When you see these features, you’ll know you’re in an Everlast Gym.”

A comprehensive rebrand
All of which brings us to the brand name. When Summerson joined Frasers Group in 2021, he was presented with a diverse portfolio of club brands – the result of growing predominantly by acquisition. (See ‘Uniting the Estate’)

“There were Everlast Fitness Clubs, former DW clubs and Sports Direct Fitness clubs,” he says. “My task was to pull them together as one brand.”

That brand was Everlast Gyms – a “more modern” take on Everlast Fitness Clubs. with Ashley having acquired the rights to the Everlast name for a reported US$168m in 2007 (£139m, €160m).

The Everlast brand has a long pedigree, having been founded in the Bronx, New York City in 1910, initially as a swimsuit brand and then eventually as a boxing brand (see ‘Everlast, the story so far’).

“There was a lot of discussion around how quickly we should bring all our locations under one brand,” says Summerson, “but for the majority of our estate, we decided to do it straight away.” It meant clubs were branded Everlast Gyms before they’d been elevated but, as he explains, “we felt it was right to get some traction and consistency across the estate – our clubs, our website and our social media”.

At the time of conducting this interview, one club was already operating the new Everlast Gyms model: a new property in Denton, Manchester. Opened in late December 2021 to test the concept, equally importantly it gave the teams – especially those coming from the older-style clubs – a chance to understand the new approach, says Summerson. “It’s been a massive learning curve for them, but now we’ve been able to show them the new look and feel and new ways of operating, I think they’re super, super excited about it.”

Two more fully-fledged Everlast Gyms will have opened their doors by the time this interview is published: the inaugural club, unveiled with its new look and feel at head office in Shirebrook on 18 June and a second new site in Preston, which opened on 24 June.

“It’s early doors,” confirms Summerson. “The DW purchase was made in lockdown in 2020, and since then we’ve been pulling together our strategy and look for the future.”

More rebrands will follow, with an emphasis on upgrading the 40 clubs that have been retained and are still operating from the DW estate.

“We’ll update the remaining Sports Direct Fitness clubs eventually too and at some point we’ll also tackle the clubs originally opened as Everlast Fitness Clubs, even though those are already quite new,” says Summerson.

“We’re keen to have everything under one umbrella and all looking the same. But it won’t happen overnight: it’s a massive roll-out and I’d say it’s a three-year project to get everything up to our new Everlast Gym standards,” says Summerson.

“Even that’s a tough ask,” he continues, “We’re under no illusions – if we can do it in three years, that will be great. If it takes a bit longer, then that’s the way it will have to be.”

Strong forecasts
In the meantime, business performance has been roaring back, says Summerson: “In FY22 – the full year to 30 April 2022 – we built up our membership base really well. We’re now in a comfortable position, with most of our members having come back and are poised to keep growing. Our forecasts for FY23 are strong.”

That includes growth beyond the current estate, with a focus that’s very much on new brick and mortar locations. “We’re fully aware we’re undertaking a big project with the elevation of our current sites, but if growth opportunities come up we feel are worth taking on, then we’ll definitely take them,” say Summerson.

“We have the team behind us now to do it organically, too. I’m not saying we’d never make another acquisition – that’s for the people above me in the business to decide in any case – but I think we can and will grow organically as well.”

He adds: “What I’m seeing is big box gyms recovering – better than the boutiques, in fact – with people wanting to come in for the community and the environment. We’ll offer more interactive digital experiences in-club, but not online home workouts. Honestly, I think Apple has cleaned up there. In any case, we want people to come and use our spaces.”

Although Everlast is part of Frasers Group, there is, says Summerson, “no talk at the minute” about Everlast Gyms opening up inside department stores. “It’s more about how we can sit alongside to some of the Group’s other operations,” he says, “Taking advantage of the footfall going into Sports Direct stores, for example.”

Summerson concludes: “Ultimately, we want to become number one fitness business in the UK. I also believe that if the options came available, we’d consider going overseas.”

UK #1 is a lofty ambition, I venture. How would he define that? “I wouldn’t say it’s defined just by number of clubs, because you could have a load of clubs that aren’t up to a great standard,” he says. “For me it’s about product, design and standards.

“Of course, you have to be a certain size to be well known. You need a certain number of clubs. But I want us to get those three key elements consistently right. I want our members to walk away from each workout thinking we have an outstanding offer.”