There’s an enhanced flow on the Reebok club gym floor post-refurb


“We have no end date by which we need


to return money to investors, so we’re


able to be open-minded about the investments we make”


The Pearson Room was set up as a standalone brand by the Reebok club


and operating premium health clubs in iconic locations across the capital,” says Shirin Gandhi, partner at London-based investment firm Encore Capital. And certainly this bid has started off


W February 2015 ©


strongly. Using the springboard of its existing ownership of the Reebok Sports Club London, late last year the firm acquired both of The Third Space clubs


– in Soho and Marylebone – as well as the 37 degrees club in Tower Bridge. That in itself puts the newly formed


group immediately on the map, but it’s the way Gandhi speaks about these deals that sets his firm apart from other


Cybertrek 2015


e have a strategy to be the leading luxury health club operator in London, owning


investment vehicles operating in the fitness market. “We don’t even use the term private equity, because there are two fundamental differences in the way we operate,” he explains. “First of all, the five partners who


are part of Encore have all invested a significant amount of our own money into the fund. We wanted to demonstrate to the people we work with – the investors we have on board – that we’re taking as much risk as they are. “Secondly, we describe ourselves as


a permanent capital vehicle – PCV – which we also describe as an ‘evergreen’ approach. It means we have no end date by which we need to return money to investors, so we’re able to be open- minded about the investments we make.


We can stay invested in a business for as long as we feel it’s right for the business.”


A foothold in fitness He continues: “Reebok is a case in point. We first invested in 2006, which was an interesting time: Ian [Mahoney – then MD] and Diane [Kay, sales and marketing director] had already done a great job at turning the business around, but it still needed to build its membership base. That’s tough in a location like Canary Wharf, where there’s a lot of fluidity in employment, and in a club that has a policy of not tying people in to annual contracts. “From day one we were clear we would


never discount, as that just undervalues the offering. Instead we set out to give


Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 31


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