GLL

About us
We’re sport, leisure and culture’s leading staff-owned charitable social enterprise founded on our purpose and values to provide a different, fairer and better way of doing business. Our purpose is to improve the physical, mental and social wellbeing of local communities.

As the UK’s leading provider of both leisure centres and libraries we operate over 360 locations, all helping to make a real difference to local communities and local people.

Every penny that GLL makes is reinvested back into the business to support our social purpose.

Product range and services
Operating across leisure, health, libraries and sports development, GLL works with partners, stakeholders and customers to build active and sustainable communities and provide accessible facilities for all.

We believe in offering value-for-money and creating truly inclusive, affordable and accessible spaces. Our services are wide-ranging and offer current and potential partners a range of solutions and options for modernised service delivery, value for money and tangible added value.

USPs
The largest charitable leisure social enterprise in the UK, GLL is the UK’s largest provider of public pools school swimming lessons, tennis courts, and public libraries.

We operate the UK’s largest independent athlete support programme – The GLL Sport Foundation – which has helped over 26,000 athletes on their sporting journey since 2008, resulting in dozens of medals at international competition including Commonwealth Games, Olympics and Paralympics.

We are listed as a recommended provider of gyms by the leading consumer magazine ‘Which?’. Additionally, our recent Gold Investor in People Award and accreditation by the Living Wage Foundation recognise our positive commitment to fair treatment of our employees.

We are rooted in local communities, at the heart of health and wellbeing, producing impressive amounts of social value – across a range of measures, from physical and mental health, to subjective wellbeing and individual and community development.


Plans for the next 12 months
Our 2025 strategies and roadmap are already well-shaped and are based on our Five-Year Plan, which was launched last year.

With our positive performance and improved social outcomes during 2024, GLL is well placed to be at the forefront of societal, economic and environmental change.

The future will see us focusing on excellent customer service alongside our social enterprise values and growing our social impact, while effective partnerships with national health and wellbeing agencies will support individual lifestyle and wellness outcomes.

We’re delighted to see strong data indicators that show engagement with a diversity of age, demography and levels of activity across our facilities.

To foster community strength, health and mental wellbeing, we’ll balance the provision of health, fitness, team sport and social activities across a 50/50 split of male/female users, backed by an enhanced digital customer focus.

Testimonial
“We made the decision to begin supporting the GLL Sport Foundation in 2015, and it is a pleasure to announce the renewal of our sponsorship with this incredible institution.

"Many bright and talented athletes throughout the United Kingdom are unable to chase their dreams of sporting glory due to lack of funding. We are passionate about helping GSF give equal opportunities to all young people and achieving their dreams of competing on the international stage.

"Our partnership enables both our brands to share the success of the UK’s most aspiring athletes who we are proud to have heard speak in such an inspirational way at our internal Sales Conferences and who have supported our marketing and brand development goals through representation and storytelling both in person and via social media”.

– Rod Tonna-Barthet, chief executive, Annodata