THE EXPANSION of Ben Dunne’s fitness empire continues apace. The colourful businessman told me this week that he plans to open another gym in Dublin’s city centre, along with a second facility in Liverpool and a first in Manchester.
It’s all part of his plan to get to 20 gyms within a few years. He currently has seven between Dublin and Liverpool.
“This is a numbers game, it’s all about volume,” Dunne said. “We have 40,000 members now and we must get to 100,000.”
Dunne said the new gyms, which don’t have swimming pools, are costing about €1 million a pop. “I’m funding it myself. I wouldn’t want to go deeper into debt.”
Latest accounts for Barkisland (Developments) Ltd, the parent company of Dunne’s various gyms, show that it made a loss of €294,280 in the year to the end of May 2011. This reduced its shareholder funds to €4.8 million.
The accounts show that his Westpoint fitness centre in Blanchardstown, west Dublin made a modest profit of €22,569 last year and had accumulated profits of €239,654.
His Carlisle club in Kimmage, on the south side of the city, topped that with a surplus of €200,615 and reserves of €2.4 million.
But a different picture emerges for three other health centres in Dublin.
Jervis made a loss of €158,206, while Lucan dropped €109,668.
In Santry, the gym recorded a modest deficit for the year of €13,125 but at least closed the period with positive reserves of €828,486.
No profit or loss figures were given for either the Sandyford or UK gyms, in which Barkisland has “participating interests” and which are newer members of Dunne’s fitness portfolio.
Dunne, who has two sons working in the business, said revenues would be up 13 per cent this year and he’s expecting an operating profit of €1.7 million.
“We will have operating profits of at least €5 million within two years as the new clubs come on stream,” he said confidently.
Fitness is a cut-throat business in the recession. In Liverpool, Dunne is charging just £100 a year for men and £89 for women.
Why the price difference? “We’d too many men as members. I needed to do something to get women to join.”
