Barrecore Launches 12th Studio Under United Fitness Brands Umbrella

LONDON, United Kingdom — Boutique fitness brand Barrecore has launched its 12th studio in the UK, following its recent acquisition by fitness supergroup United Fitness Brands.

The new studio in Chelsea, London, is located within the same premises as boxing studio KOBOX, which sits alongside Barrecore and Boom Cycle under the United Fitness Brands umbrella.

The introduction of the 1900 sq ft studio supports Barrecore’s contribution to the fitness supergroup, which launched in January backed by Pembroke VCT, Nectar Capital Dominvs Group and chaired by David Lloyd, Founder of David Lloyd Leisure Clubs. It aims to accelerate growth collaboratively.

United Fitness Brands believes that bringing London’s most premium fitness offerings together will create a more efficient way for leading boutique studios to run. Ultimately boosting scalability nationally and internationally.

In the US, Xponential Fitness — a curator of boutique fitness brands including Pure Barre, Row House, AKT, Club Pilates and more, has been able to facilitate aggressive growth by bringing together various fitness concepts underneath one umbrella, proving just how successful the model can be.

With, United Fitness Brands portfolio currently sitting at over 20 sites — taking the business to a national level — it is already well on its way to replicating that success within the European market.

Commenting on the launch of the new studio, UFB’s Co-Founder Hilary Rowland, said: “We are excited to launch this new studio, bringing one of the UK’s most loved barre experiences to Chelsea.”

She added: “Whilst the studio may be familiar to some as previously KOBOX’s site, the coming together of what are three tremendous fitness offerings are set to be a gamechanger for London and the boutique fitness industry as we know it.”

Barrecore, which first launched in 2011 as the original specialist barre studio in the UK, now has nine sites in London, as well as studios in Manchester and Bristol.

Under the United Fitness Brands parent company it will continue to expand across the UK, with a 13th site due to open in Leeds later this year. The company’s other brands KOBOX and Boom Cycle are also set for expansion, despite the turbulent market conditions.

With a huge number of employees continuing to work from home, this is one of the immediate challenges, revealed Rowland.

“All studios in commercial areas rely on office workers being present,” she told Welltodo. “So, the faster people come back to offices, the faster our businesses can get back to some resemblance of ‘normal’ business.”

According to Rowland, its residential studios are busy, with some even busier than before COVID-19. This she argued, demonstrates that people are excited to come back but only to where it’s convenient for them to get to.

With that in mind, the outlook appears positive, and United Fitness Brands isn’t holding back.

“United Fitness Brands is set up for great opportunity in what we offer to businesses. And each new addition we choose will bring greater economies of scale for all in our group,” Rowland explained.

With that in mind, the company is moving full steam ahead with building back up timetables and growing teams, as well as pushing forward with expansion plans.

“This is a time of great opportunity and we aim to take full advantage of it.”