Pure Gym secures Banbury site

Health club operator Pure Gym will expand its portfolio in the South of England with a new site at the Banbury Cross Retail Park in Oxfordshire.

Pure Gym has secured planning permission from Cherwell District Council’s planning committee for a new building – which will house the gym – to be constructed at the mixed-use development.

The 1,394sq m (15,000sq ft) club will be operated as a 24-hour facility, but no further details or opening date has been confirmed as yet.

Councillor Colin Clarke, Cherwell’s lead member for planning, said: “We are pleased that this applicant will be bringing further business to the Banbury Cross Retail Park, not least because of the further affordable health and fitness option it will bring to the town’s residents.”

Pure Gym is currently the UK’s largest private health club operator with more than 160 sites.

The company was believed to have been planning a listing on the stock market earlier this year, but plans to float the business were put on hold due to the ongoing market turbulence caused by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in June.

Pure Gym is owned by US private equity firm CCMP Capital Advisors, which acquired the chain in May 2013.