United Fitness Brands Acquires Barrecore

LONDON, United Kingdom — United Fitness Brands (UFB), a recently launched boutique fitness supergroup based in the UK, has acquired Barrecore.

The 12-strong barre studio brand will join founding studios Boom Cycle and KOBOX under new ownership. The acquisition will extend the United Fitness Brands portfolio to over 20 sites, taking the business to a national level for the first time and further cementing its mission to become Europe’s largest boutique studio chain.

Speaking about the deal, Joe Cohen, CEO of United Fitness Brands, said: “Barrecore has established itself as a premium fitness and wellbeing brand over the past decade, and we’re very excited to now have it under the UFB umbrella.”

He added: “We’re delighted to have the opportunity to further improve the incredible work the team at Barrecore has done so far and we look forward to creating new synergies and best processes for all brands with our vast collective knowledge in this industry.”

The acquisition comes just one month after the supergroup’s official launch, at which time Robert Rowland, Co-Founder of Boom Cycle told Welltodo that United Fitness Brands was on the lookout for brands to join the group that “mean more than just a workout to their communities; brands that create collective effervescence and positive escapism.”

Moving forward, Barrecore will now be owned by UFB, which is backed by Pembroke VCT, Nectar Capital Dominvs Group and chaired by David Lloyd, Founder of David Lloyd Leisure Clubs. And it will continue to expand across the UK, with a 13th site due to open in Leeds later this year.

Under the umbrella of UFB, the idea is that costs can be spread and support and expertise shared between the different fitness brands, leaving operators to concentrate on running classes and creating amazing experiences. The hope, Rowland told Welltodo is that by creating a more efficient way for leading boutique studios to run, growth can be accelerated. 

In fact, according to the supergroup, all of its brands are set for immediate expansion upon COVID-19 restrictions lifting, with KOBOX opening its fourth studio within one of Boom Cycle’s current locations in Waterloo, London and a sixth Boom Cycle studio in KOBOX’s flagship studio on the King’s Road.

However, despite the overlap, within the UFB group, each brand will continue to be run by their expert teams under a senior management team at UFB, to ensure the quality and delivery of each class is the best in the business. 

According to Rowland, UFB will mainly operate as a B2B company, with the majority of customers unaware that it even exists.

“The support, connections, and combined central resources mean each marketing investment goes further, there are greater economies of scale, and this creates an automatic forum for sharing ideas amongst the most talented fitness executives,” added Scott Rudmann, Founder and Managing Partner of Nectar Capital. 

However: “Keeping each brand operating with a separate identity and its own DNA allows for the experts in each fitness vertical to do what they do best.”