Exclusive: End of an era as Johnston prepares to leave Matrix UK

Jon Johnston – the man who transformed Matrix Fitness UK into a £40m (US$51.7m, €47.6m) company – will step down as managing director in September.

Johnston joined the fitness equipment firm in 2007 when it had a turnover of below £3m (US$3.9m, €3.6m).

But after 10 years of building up the business – based largely on Matrix’s relationships with low cost gym clients, such as Pure Gym and The Gym Group, as well as public sector health clubs – Johnston has decided to embark on another challenge.

“So much has happened in 10 years at Matrix that I am proud of, but the most significant achievement has been our dramatic growth from being a relative unknown brand to now being one of the market leaders,” he said.

“This has been in a large part to creating a great team of people with a very clear vision of what we wanted to achieve.”

Johnston added that he would be announcing more details about his future project soon, but revealed he would be working, initially, in “high performance sports including professional cycling”.

“I will also be staying very closely involved with the international fitness industry and I have some big projects planned for 2018 working with some innovative new brands,” he said.

Johnston’s close connection with cycling resulted in Matrix partnering with athletes such as Olympic gold medallist Laura Kenny.

The company also successfully connected with brands like Wasps Rugby, Red Bull Racing and Lotus F1 during his tenure.

Matrix is expecting to make an announcement about Johnston’s successor “soon”, with the search for its next managing director at a “well advanced” stage.