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Ladies only health club chain heads into receivership
Aludel, operator of the ladies-only health club chain Reviva, has been placed in administrative receivership.
The chain’s failure has been attributed to having insufficient capital to allow it to refurbish its sites and be able to compete in the highly competitive private health club sector.
Aludel was incorporated in December 2000, acquiring 16 women-only health clubs from Lady in Leisure a year later with the new brand, Reviva, being launched in 2002.
In July last year, CEO Martin Callan put out a call to investors to raise £4m for refurbishments across its portfolio, which consisted of 17 clubs at the time.
He planned a two-phase upgrade plan: firstly, £50,000 would be spent on a cosmetic refurbishment of each club and new Technogym equipment. Then, the company would re-evaluate the estate to determine which clubs would benefit from a full refurbishment, which was expected to cost up to £350,000 per site.
The full programme of refurbishment was scheduled to have completed by December 2005, with Callan planning to at least double the number of clubs by the following year – predicting that by then, EBITDA would be in excess of £6 million.
Following the sale of two clubs earlier this year, the chain currently operates 15 sites; mainly in the north of England and the Midlands.
Joint receiver, Mike Oldham of RSM Robson Rhodes, said he believed the ladies-only health club concept has an ‘exciting future’ and offers ‘great potential for investors’.
Callan claimed last year that with 55 per cent of all gym users being female but only 3 per cent of UK women using fitness facilities, there was plenty of room for the ladies-only market to grow organically. He had identified 130 UK towns and cities which could potentially host a Reviva club.