Newcastle United football club owner Mike Ashley is to open a chain of cut-price gyms charging £5 a month in the latest expansion of his Sports Direct business empire.
Sports Direct said it would “revolutionise the market” by opening 200 sites charging a fraction of rivals’ prices. There will be a £10 joining fee.
A flagship 20,000 sq ft site is to be opened by the company at Aintree on Merseyside next month alongside a new Sports Direct store. Another gym will follow at Keighley, West Yorkshire.
A spokesman for Sports Direct said the gyms would offer “affordable fitness on an unprecedented scale”
The announcement comes after a recent deal to acquire up to 30 sites from LA Fitness, which is in the process of rebranding.
Sports Direct said its £5 deal was being tried out at its new purpose-built gyms and it could be rolled out at the former LA Fitness sites in the future.
It is the latest venture for the group, which operates about 418 stores in the UK and grown rapidly to become a FTSE 100 company since being founded by Ashley in Maidenhead in 1982. The firm’s shares fell by 2.7% on Tuesday.
It has recently taken a major stake in department store Debenhams and placed a multimillion-pound corporate bet on shares in Tesco.
