Humphrey Cobbold PureGym will expand globally through a multi-brand approach, but that won’t involve a boutique format, as its CEO explains to Kate Cracknell PureGym operates in the budget sector, but a few years ago you launched a cycling boutique. Why? Being quite honest, I think we were slightly seduced by the boutique sector. We were all seeing the success of brands like SoulCycle, and PureGym had a US investor at the time who was very interested in that. Allied to that, our founder and chair Peter Roberts felt there were lots of property opportunities for reasonably priced 6,000–7,000sq ft sites in London. 14
RIDE HIGH April 2020
This was also a time when, although I certainly wouldn’t say we were mounting up on our own hubris, we were perhaps a bit flushed with the success of PureGym. I had recently joined the company, we had acquired LA fitness in the UK, the business was developing well… And as I say, we could see the beginnings of what was happening in the boutique sector. So in January 2016, we decided to test the waters of this emerging sector for ourselves, launching cycling boutique Pure Ride in the Moorgate area of London, UK.
