Leisure giant Fitness First has no plans to open a new gym in Shrewsbury when the current club closes in September, the company said today.
Instead the 2,000 members of the St Michael’s Street gym will have to travel to Telford for a work-out.
Fitness First today said it was confident most members would stick with the company.
Spokeswoman Laura Leggetter said all 20 staff from Shrewsbury would be transferred to Telford.
“There are no plans to look for a new place in Shrewsbury, everything will be transferred to Telford.”
She said Shrewsbury’s gym had a loyal membership and Fitness First was “more than confident” that many of the 2,000 would travel to Telford.
But she added that the company would be flexible with any members who wanted to reconsider their pay-monthly contracts.
Shrewsbury site owner Morris Property has described the closure announcement as “disappointing” and says it is now looking for a new firm to take over the building.
Fitness First will be open as normal until September 21. A pay-as-you-go scheme, costing £3.50 per session, will soon be up and running because the club is no longer accepting new pay-monthly members.
Shrewsbury is one of Fitness First’s oldest clubs and a massive farewell party is planned for August.
The gym is looking for a suitable school or charity to which it can donate equipment including balls and skipping ropes.
Telford Golf and Country Club today urged any members thinking of cancelling their Fitness First membership to consider joining its new health and fitness spa, which is currently under construction and due to open in November.
By Tom Warren
16 Comments
As a member, I am dissapointed to hear about the closure in the press rather than receiving a communication from the company. I fo one will not be travelling to Telford and will look at other options in Shrewsbury
Yeh..right!.
I suggest that the Fitness First get real,Im a current member in Shrewsbury.Like I’m going to travel all the way to Telford when there are other Gyms in Shrewsbury.
Fitness First are cutting their own throats.
Could I suggest people try the Castle Country Club at Rowton, just outside Shrews, it’s got a gym, pool, steam room, jacuzzi, beauty salon, fitness classes, and I think it’s the only gym in the area with tennis, squash and badminton courts.
BODYTECH in mardol’s the best, it’s cheap, friendly, modern, right in the town centre so handiest alternative for fitness first members.
I go to the Welti on the Sundorne rd,think it’s easily the best gym in the area with the best facilities,more exclusive than the others.
I aggree with the previous comment to find out in the press is really dissapointing. I have received no letter or telephone call and I will certainly not be travelling to Telford when there are plenty other places in Shrewsbury.
No way I am going to telford…yeah, could you imagine how packed it would be in Telford if 2,000 extra people turned up. Get real Fitness First! Stupid company! I think we should all write in and complain, but really its Morris’ that are the villains, they are charging extortionate rent at the location, that’s why they are having to close! Greedy Morris - as always!
I for one, like many others I can imagine, will NOT be travelling to Telford - Laura Leggetter seems to be in a dream world for thinking otherwise!…I can imagine other Shrewsbury gyms are now rubbing their hands together- a loss of 2,000 members will not be good FF- thanks for letting us all down!
Why be a gym rat when you can join the Shropshire Shufflers running club. 200 members can’t be wrong!
save fitness first in Shrewsbury here:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fitnessfirstshrewsbury/
My friend was off to the one in Walsall Wood this afternoon and did not know about the FITNESS FIRST situation in Shrewsbury at all.
If Laura Leggetter is to be believed it would seem that Fitness First have based their decision to abandon their 2,000 Shrewsbury members on a business plan on steroids ! Do they really believe that even 1,000 members will stay with them and go to Telford - after all that would give them an extra say £300K extra income at Telford for no extra cost(are the staff really going to transfer?) If this is their assumption it is time to get real -loyalty cuts both ways and Fitness First have betrayed their loyal membership for PROFIT - they are almost as bad as Morris’s.
I for one will not be going to Telford and will NEVER use Fitness first again wherever I might be. So stick that in your business plan and cost it !!!!
I have been a member here since it first opened, I can’t believe that the first I heard about this was through the paper, even though I had been to the gym that day! I will not be travelling to Telford to work out after work, or at the weekends. It is insane to suggest such a thing. Everyone please write to their headquaters or use their online forms to let them know how we all feel.
It’s really stupid expecting people to travel aproximately 12 miles to telford location.
What also makes me annoyed is the fact that when I joined I had to pay around £75 join up fee + monthly fee on top upfront, which looks like I’m going to have to pay to another gym when I move.
I’m phoning up today, to cancel my membership, I am disgusted with Fitness First’s approach.
If there are any gyms in shrewsbury that want to make a profit from this closure think about waivering your join up fees, and you will be quids in!
Staff at the shrewsbury club are currently in talks with the gyms in the local area to find good membership deals for all their members. The best thing for people to do is to go into the gym and talk to the staff directly…they’re being extreemly helpful with the situation.
Went in today to cancel my membership, found out that they are trying to re-locate members to other local gyms and hopefully wavier joining fees in the transfer process, Hope this works out for us.
Contrary to my last post I do appreicate the efforts FF are making and understand that this re-location is believed to being forced upon by Morris Property.