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PETER WOODS
Boutique studio operator Barrecore is looking to expand rapidly throughout the UK and Europe. Tom Walker speaks to its newly appointed CEO What’s your background? My career in fitness began in 1992 after I graduated with a degree in sports and business studies. Over the past 25 years, I’ve worked in the UK and across Europe and held a number of senior positions in the private and public sectors – including stints as regional director at Holmes Place Health Clubs, operations director at David Lloyd Leisure, and chief operating officer of Aspria.
What brought you to Barrecore? I see Barrecore as a fantastic brand. It has built a very dedicated and loyal community and occupies a significant space in the boutique fitness sector. It was also clear that Barrecore, as barre fitness pioneers in the UK, had an excellent and unique product offering with very strong growth potential.
What’s the background to Barrecore as a business? Barrecore launched in London in 2011 and was the first specialist barre fitness studio in the UK. Barrecore’s founder, Niki Rein, had recently moved from Los Angeles and realised the boutique fitness trend she had left behind was yet to arrive in London. She recognised that Londoners needed an exercise regime that allowed them to fit a range of intelligent workouts into their busy lives. So Barrecore was born, with one ambition: to create lasting and positive change to people’s fitness.
Woods sees significant growth opportunities outside London
What’s the concept? Barrecore is a workout that uses your own bodyweight as resistance. Our classes are designed to work your entire body: creating longer, toned muscles; reducing body fat; and improving posture, alignment and fl exibility. Classes cost £24–28.
Barre is big in the US. What are its prospects in the UK? As well as the US, barre fitness is already very popular in Australia. It’s also rapidly growing in popularity in the UK. We see a significant opportunity to expand in the
We’re hugely positive about our growth potential. We see a significant opportunity to expand both in the UK and in Europe 66
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UK and Europe in the next few years. We wouldn’t want to put a definitive number on it in terms of locations, but we’re keen to scale the business rapidly and to explore all avenues of opportunity.
How many Barrecore studios do you have now? We have nine clubs in the UK: six in London and one each in Manchester, Leeds and Bristol.
What are your plans for expansion in the UK? We’ll bring Barrecore to four more outof-London locations in 2017, as well as continuing with our London expansion. We’re delighted to have secured funding from Octopus Investments recently, as this will enable us to push ahead with our rapid expansion plans. [The sum of investment by Octopus has not been disclosed].