A STRONG relationship with the North East’s most active business investor has helped a County Durham gym business open its latest fitness facility.

OneGym has used a £300,000 investment from NEL through the North East Growth Capital Fund to open a new fitness facility at Thinford Park near Spennymoor, close to the Durhamgate roundabout.

The new 24/7 gym is the sixth in the OneGym chain, sitting alongside branches in Bishop Auckland, Newton Aycliffe, Redcar, Thornaby and Stockton.

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Each of the firm’s previous gym openings have been backed by NEL investments, going back to 2012, and the company’s management team is now working on plans to open two further gyms in North East locations before the end of this year.

The new Thinford Park facility includes studio space, saunas, sunbeds, changing rooms and a range of state-of-the-art fitness equipment supplied by high-end Italian manufacturer Panatta.

Eight new full-time jobs have been created in the new branch, taking the total number of people employed by OneGym to 40, with a number of freelance instructors also employed to deliver fitness classes across the chain.

Brothers Paul and David Pearson set up OneGym ten years ago to offer users access to all the latest fitness equipment and classes without costly add-ons like swimming pools that they don’t necessarily want to use.

Managing director Paul Pearson says: “Like every other business in the leisure and hospitality sectors, we’ve experienced some real challenges through the pandemic, but we’ve been thriving over the last year and are looking ahead with real optimism.

“Thinford Park represents an ideal location for the next stage of our development.

"It can attract members from a wide range of surrounding communities in every direction, as well as from the nearby Amazon facilities.

The North East Growth Capital Fund is supported by the European Regional Development Fund via the Recovery Loan Scheme.

 

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