Good morning, and welcome to The Gym Group's Interim Results 2024. In a moment, you'll hear a short presentation, followed by a Q&A. If you are following the presentation online and you would like to ask a question, then please write your name, organization, and your question into the Q&A box on the screen at any time, and we will read it out for you on your behalf during the Q&A. I will now hand over to The Gym Group CEO, Will Orr. Will, over to you.
Well, good morning, and welcome to the 2024 half-year results presentation for The Gym Group. Thank you for making the time to join us in the room and also on the dial-in. After the presentation, we'll take questions in the room first, and then from the webcast. Our CFO, Luke Tait, and I will be doing the presenting today. Here's what we plan to cover. I'll start with an overview before handing to Luke to share our 2024 half- year financial results. I'll then provide a progress report on the Next Chapter growth strategy that we outlined in March this year, and I'll then summarize before taking questions. So starting with the overview. I'm pleased to report strong performance in the first half of 2024 , leaving us well set for the full year.
Closing membership was up 4% and yield 9%, with revenue for the period up 12%, 9% on a like-for-like basis. Strong cash generation is an important part of our investment case, and we've made good progress here. We've reduced net debt by GBP 11.8 million since December 2023 and generated GBP 24.5 million of free cash flow, up 73% versus the same period last year. We've refinanced our bank debt with a GBP 90 million combined term loan and RCF. We've been able to improve our interest rates and have a strong, supportive set of U.K. banks behind us. We continue to accelerate on new openings, with seven to date this year, four in H1, leaving us on track to open our guided 10-12 sites in the full year.
I will provide a bit more color on our site rollout later. Finally, we've made encouraging progress on the priority areas we set out in the Next Chapter growth plan. I'll show you some examples of that later in the presentation. So we're continuing to build momentum and see further opportunity to accelerate from strong foundations. I'll now hand over to Luke for the financial update.
Thank you, Will. Good morning. Starting with a summary of our financial KPIs. The key revenue KPIs, which we released in July, have both shown good growth year- on- year. We had average members across the first half of 914,000, up 3% versus last year, and average revenue per member per month was GBP 20.44 for the first half, up 9% on prior year. As a result, revenue was GBP 112.1 million, up 12% on the first half of last year. The additional revenue converted well to profit, with EBITDA less normalized rent of GBP 22.1 million, up 28% on prior year. Profit before tax was GBP 0.2 million, a significant improvement on last year's GBP 6 million loss.
Free cash flow of GBP 24.5 million was up over GBP 10 million on prior year and enabled a net debt reduction of nearly GBP 12 million to GBP 54.6 million, reducing the net debt to EBITDA leverage ratio to 1.3 times . We'll look at each of these key financial metrics in more detail in the following slides. Turning to the income statement, EBITDA less normalized rent for the first half was GBP 22.1 million, up 28% versus last year. Revenue was GBP 112.1 million, up by GBP 12.3 million year- on- year. Approximately 60% of the incremental revenue year- on-y ear was generated from like-for-like gyms and 40% from new openings since December 2021. Costs in the first half evolved in line with expectations.
Site costs benefited from a reduction in utility rates as fixes from the previous year unwound. I'll come back to the other key cost movements shortly. Central costs grew ahead of revenue growth in the first half due to higher-than-usual annual salary inflation increases and investments behind the Next Chapter strategy, and rent increased in line with normal lease terms and new sites coming off rent-free periods. EBITDA less normalized rent margin was 20% for the first half, an improvement of 3% points versus prior year. Moving on down the P&L, the non-cash charge for share-based payments of GBP 1 million was slightly lower than last year due to timing differences, and the charge will return to more normal levels in the second half.
Net financing costs of GBP 10.5 million remained flat year on year, as the increase in the SONIA rate offset the reduction in net debt. The charge consists of GBP 7.7 million relating to property lease interest and GBP 2.8 million relating to our borrowing facilities. Finally, profit before tax for the six months, including the higher IFRS 16 lease accounting charge, was GBP 0.2 million, up from a loss of GBP 6.1 million last year. On a normalized rent basis, profit before tax would be GBP 1.1 million higher. In summary, the EBITDA growth of 28% was driven by the strong first half like-for-like revenue performance. Turning now to the components of like-for-like revenue performance. Like-for-like revenue for the first half was 109%.
As we flagged in March, we took pricing early in the year this year, whereas last year the increases were more flat phased across the year, and therefore we expect like-for-likes to slow as the year progresses. The average revenue per member per month increase of 9% was delivered without impact to membership numbers. Looking at the average revenue per member per month growth in more detail, average revenue per member per month grew by 9% to GBP 20.44 in the first half of 2024. Key drivers of this were headline rate increases, which then allow existing member repricing and joining fee and promotion optimization, and Will will talk to this in more detail later. The average standard headline rate in June increased by 9% to GBP 24. Site costs for the first half have come in line with expectations.
We've seen inflationary pressures from national minimum wage, which impacts both staff costs and cleaning, and in rates from the rateable value rating period, an increase in the uniform business rate. We continue to evolve and optimize our operating model to mitigate cost inflation. In our staffing model, we've made changes both at the management and fitness trainer level. We are tailoring our management structures using a range of roles, which enable us to align the management structure to the complexity and scale of the operations in each area, and optimizing the number of trainers to the gym level demand ensures satisfaction for members, sufficient opportunities for the trainers, and maximum returns for the business. On rates, we've managed to reduce the impact of the increases by challenging rateable values wherever possible.
In utilities, as well as seeing the higher electricity prices work their way out of the business, we have a number of energy efficiency programs ongoing. And finally, a softening insurance market has also provided savings. Therefore, we continue to expect like-for-like costs to increase by 2%-3% for the full year this year. Turning now to cash flow. A strong cash flow generation in the first half enabled us to fund expansionary CapEx from free cash flow, in line with our guidance at the time of our full year results in March. The higher-than-expected working capital inflow of GBP 10.7 million reflects careful cash management throughout the first half, but also includes some short-term timing differences, which are expected to reverse in the second half.
After deducting maintenance CapEx for the first half of GBP 4.3 million, operating cash flow was GBP 28.5 million, up by more than GBP 10 million on the same period last year. After non-underlying costs of GBP 0.5 million and bank and lease interest of GBP 3.5 million, free cash flow was GBP 24.5 million, up 73% versus H1 last year. Expansionary CapEx was GBP 11.2 million, and we funded our employee benefit trust to acquire 1.5 million of shares to avoid shareholder dilution from share-based remuneration, and have done the same again in the second half. As a result, net debt was GBP 11.8 million lower than at year-end. We continue to invest to drive the business forward.
Total cash CapEx in the first half of the year was GBP 15.5 million, 1 million higher than last year. New site investment has increased to GBP 7.5 million as we accelerate our new site opening program, as flagged at our strategy update in March. We opened four new gyms in the first half of this year, compared to two last year. We're on track to open 10-12 new gyms this year, in line with our guidance, and therefore, expansionary CapEx is expected to be higher in the second half. Maintenance CapEx was GBP 4.3 million in the first half. This is also expected to increase in the second half, as the major enhancement projects requiring gym closures are scheduled over the summer, our quietest operating period.
This will bring the spend for the full year more into line with our 6% of revenue guidance. Last year's first half enhancement spend of GBP 4.9 million was unusual, as it included the replacement of gym kit in 19 gyms acquired the previous year. We continue to expect total CapEx to be between GBP 35 million-GBP 40 million for the full year. Turning now to net debt. The strong free cash flow has allowed good progress on leverage reduction. Non-property net debt was GBP 54.6 million at the end of June, down GBP 11.8 million from the year-end. The net debt consisted of GBP 48.6 million of bank debt andGBP 6 million of finance lease debt.
As a result of the reduction in debt, the total debt to EBITDA multiple reduced to 1.3x , down from 1.7x at year-end and 2x at the prior year-end. Given the second half weighting of CapEx and the expected element of working capital unwind, year-end net debt is expected to be higher than at the half-year . In June, we finalized a new banking agreement. The combined facility of GBP 90 million, GBP 10 million larger than the previous facility, is now split equally between a term loan and an RCF. The tenure changed from rolling one-year extensions to a three-year term with two one-year extensions. The syndicate remains unchanged, with the existing three Tier 1 banks: HSBC, Barclays and NatWest. The interest rates reduced slightly to a minimum of SONIA plus 2.75%.
The covenants remained unchanged, with the main adjusted leverage covenant, essentially EBITDA after net debt, at three times. The new facility agreement permits distributions to shareholders, but in line with our capital allocation policy set out in March, our priority remains organic new site growth with a ROIC of 30%. New sites continue to perform well. The new sites opened in 2021 are now delivering ROIC ahead of 30% as a cohort. The sites opened in 2022 are on track to deliver an average ROIC of 30%, and although early in their tenure the 2023 sites are progressing in line with expectations. Finally, turning to current trading and outlook. Current trading momentum has continued into July and August. We are now entering the key student acquisition period. In March, we guided to like-for-like sales growth of 4%- 5% for the year.
We now expect like-for-like sales growth to be in the 5%-6% range. After a strong first half performance and with continued current trading momentum, we now expect to deliver the top end of recently revised market expectations. New gym openings remain on track, with seven openings year- to- date, four of which fell in the first half. We're on track for 10-12 new openings in 2024, in line with our March guidance. I'll now hand over to Will for a Next Chapter strategy plan update.
Thank you, Luke. So in March, I set out our Next Chapter growth plan, something that we devised with our team and our board last autumn and started to execute on in H1. The objective of that plan is clear: to deliver sustained growth from free cash flow and to increase shareholder returns. To do that, we're building on the inherent strength of our proposition, high value, low-cost fitness, and our market position. With that foundation, we're deploying our data and our expert teams to innovate on the areas that make the most difference to the growth drivers of this business. It's early days, but I wanted to give you a progress report. To briefly remind you of the investment case, as a team, we're focused on delivering sustained growth from free cash flow.
Starting at twelve o'clock on the circle, as I outlined in March, we benefit from a robust and growing market for health and fitness. The long-term growth trend for fitness and gyms, looking backward and forward, is very encouraging, and in turn, it is the low-cost part of the market that is growing fastest. As with other sectors, we're benefiting from consumers' growing appetite for no-frills, great value propositions. To take full advantage of market tailwinds, you need a winning proposition. We have that, and as you'll see shortly, customer satisfaction with our proposition is higher than ever and growing as a source of competitive advantage. Building on those foundations, we see multiple drivers of growth listed on the right-hand side of the slide, and we have detailed plans on each of them.
Strong execution on these growth drivers will increase returns on our existing sites and create ever more free cash flow to reinvest in quality new sites. All of this will be powered by our increasingly strong capabilities in data and technology, two things that underpin any successful digital subscription business. As you know, we operate in a robust and growing U.K. gym market. U.K. consumers now spend GBP 5.9 billion on gym memberships, with 10.7 million of us being members of a gym. Gyms are very much here to stay, supported by some very helpful macro trends that I talked to in the March strategy update, and as you can see, high value, low cost continues to grow share, and we're one of two brands with over 80% member share of this highly attractive space.
I explained in March how our simple, scalable proposition, based on convenience, value, and results, is highly rated by our members. The progress on this continues. The proportion of members visiting us four or more times a month continues to tick up, while the proportion of members rating us five out of five in our satisfaction survey has risen year on year to a remarkable 58%. And our proposition is sector-leading. Looking at Google reviews, the proportion of our gyms rated 4.5- 5 is significantly higher than our nearest competitors. My point is that while we're not complacent and continue to challenge ourselves on all aspects of the proposition and service, we have strong customer foundations to accelerate from. As a reminder, there are three elements to our growth strategy.
Strengthen the core is about increasing returns on our existing sites and members, driving growth in like-for-like revenue and free cash flow. That, in turn, allows us to accelerate, using that free cash flow, our rollout of quality sites in the U.K. These first two cogs are very much where our executional focus is for the time being, but successful execution will create more cash, capability, and confidence to look at new ways to broaden our growth over the midterm. So starting with the first cog, strengthen the core, there are, in turn, three areas of focus covering different aspects of customer revenue growth. Firstly, on pricing and revenue management, we see strong near-term upside opportunity, and I'm confident we have the capability and technology to execute. Secondly, there is opportunity when it comes to acquiring new customers close to our current sites.
While our revenue growth will be weighted, more weighted to yield in the near term, we do have plans to support volume too. And thirdly, member retention. While no contract is an important part of our proposition, and I don't expect our business model to be low churn per se, I do see opportunity for marginal gains by taking a systematic and data-driven approach. And to illustrate the point about marginal gains, an additional GBP 1 of average revenue per member month is worth over GBP 8 million of annualized revenue. Similarly, a 1% increase in membership volume is worth GBP 3.3 million of revenue a year, while adding just one week to the tenure of each member gives us nearly GBP 6 million of annualized revenue. The numbers here are illustrative rather than guidance, please note, but do show the potential of the marginal gains we're targeting.
On the next few slides, I'll give you some examples of the progress that we're making on these drivers. As we grow yield and revenue, several pricing and promotions initiatives are contributing. As we've previously described, detailed analysis from pricing specialist Simon-Kucher & Partners concluded there is headroom in the minds of consumers for all the main low-cost gyms to increase prices, given the strength of the proposition. Despite the relative strength of our own proposition, there is a gap on headline rates to our competitors. As you can see in the table on the right-hand side, we have made progress in closing that gap in H1, though our competitors continue to increase prices, too. With those strong member perceptions on value for money, higher headline rates, detailed elasticity analysis, and careful testing, we're also being bolder when it comes to repricing existing members.
350,000 members were repriced in H1 without significant churn. Turning to Off-Peak, having rolled it out nationally late last year, we continue to optimize its deployment, including optimizing its pricing at site level. In the sites where we've done this to date, we're seeing a 1%-2% improvement in revenue, and we'll continue this work. We also continue to innovate on promotions in several ways, including successfully trialing a new mechanic that's driven incremental volume and reduced churn at the same time. To give you a bit more insight on our optimizing of promotions, here are two further data points. The first shows how we shifted our mix towards less costly promotions year- on- year. In H1, we had 12 days promoting a headline rate discount, and 11 more using the more cost-effective no joining fee promotion.
We also know that those joining on the latter stay for longer. The second shows how the new Off-Peak product is, as expected, contributing to more volume and revenue when we include this product in our promotions. The overall impression I want to give you on yield and revenue management is that we'll continue to take an analytical, test-based approach to unlock upside. We're now into 2025 planning on this workstream, and I'm confident there is more to come here. Turning to the way we acquire new members, here are a few of our key wins from H1. Around 700,000 people enter our online buying journey each month, so incremental improvements in conversion make a significant difference. Against this objective, we now have a program of AB testing, with 15 tests executed and analyzed in H1.
The example on the right-hand side shows how a simple language change created a thirty-three basis points improvement in this particular stage of the buying journey. On its own, this isn't transformational, but we're finding multiple examples like this and will continue to find more. In March, I talked about our plan to introduce dynamic creative using data and ad technology. That's now in place, serving more relevant digital ads to different audiences. We're also testing marketing spend upweights targeted at our most valuable prospect cohorts to unlock opportunity for incremental volume and profit.
Finally, as outlined in March, given a gym is a location-driven purchase, we're focusing our message and our media targeting at site level, and the marketing focus on winning locally is starting to pay off, as you can see on the next chart. Based on our regular YouGov tracking survey, likelihood to join among our core audience improved by 15 basis, 15% basis points in H1. Meanwhile, our Gym Round the Corner advertising campaign is driving impressive improvements in critical metrics, like intention to visit the website, perception of value for money, and intention to join. We're also ramping up our acquisition efforts in local social media. It's not new news, but this is clearly an increasingly critical channel to reach and engage prospects, and we want to be sector-leading here.
Social is high reach, with over 80% of our target age group using at least one social channel, and it's high share of attention, too, with that group spending nearly two and a half hours a day this way. It's also increasingly influential when it comes to choosing services, brands, and solutions, and there's no category where this is more relevant than fitness, with 550 million hashtags for fitness on Instagram alone. With this in mind, we've revamped our approach to local social on Instagram, combining the best of central planning and local site managers, and we're seeing encouraging results. Over the last 12 months, we've posted nearly 9,000 pieces of content on our gym-level pages, which have been shown 10.6 million times.
Local gym searches have contributed to 2.4 million visits to these pages on Instagram, and we've added 120,000 more followers, bringing our total to nearly 500,000 people. When it comes to engagement in that content, over 7% of it has been liked, commented, or shared by its audience. This is well up year- on- year and compares to an overall health and wellness industry average of 1.8%. In turn, this higher engagement drives the Instagram algorithm to surface our content to more people. The message here is that we're working hard to make social a real point of strength when it comes to growing our membership. Turning to retention. In previous roles, I've seen the economic power of increasing member retention rates, and our new retention program is beginning to gain momentum.
As I explained in March, our highest churn rates are in the first 45 days of a member's tenure, what we call early life. As a result, we're very focused on that early life experience. For example, we've tested an increased frequency, relevance, and quality of communication with members at that early stage. For the trial cohort, that CRM work has improved early life retention by 3.3%, and we're now rolling out and further enhancing that approach. Secondly, we've launched a range of new app features to improve onboarding and help members get the most from their membership. Thirdly, as I alluded to earlier, as part of our Acquire to Retain program, we've devised a new promotional mechanic that is designed with retention and reduced post-promotion bill shock in mind. The early results are very encouraging.
We have regional trials going on, where teams are focusing on hitting what data shows to be the key visit thresholds for early life members. More visits equate to better retention, so this is an organizational mantra now. While we're in the early stages of developing our retention program, and there's still much more to learn and optimize, I'm encouraged by an improvement in our retention rate of 50 basis points in H1 versus the same period last year. That's a few examples of the many ways we're strengthening the core of the business, increasing like-for-like revenue and mature site returns, while creating more free cash flow. In line with the capital allocation policy that Luke set out in March, we're currently deploying that free cash flow to accelerate the rollout of quality sites.
As you'll recall, PwC recently estimated ten years plus runway for U.K. white space for low-cost gyms, so the opportunity here is compelling. Turning to that site rollout, as previously guided, we're planning to open around 50 new sites over three years, with an average ROIC of 30%, and we're only opening sites that have the same characteristics as the 100+ existing sites already returning at that level. For 2024, we're on track to open our guided 10- 12 sites. Looking to 2025 and beyond, we're building a great pipeline. Our efforts here are being accelerated by the appointment of Savills as a national agent to complement our network of local agents and acquisition managers. On the right-hand side of the chart, you can see an estimated view of how we expect the rollout to accelerate over the three years.
So we put a lot of work into the way we source sites, but also the launch plans we put in place to get them off to a fast start, and I'm pleased to say it's working. Across Orpington, Manchester, Plaistow, Euston, Welwyn Garden City, and Dudley, all new sites are tracking ahead of their appraisal rate for membership growth and therefore their journey towards the target returns level. As noted, the black line, which is Manchester Oxford Road, will be getting a boost right now as it's in the heart of a strong student population, while it's too early to report on East Ham, which has just opened. So that's the early progress report on our Next Chapter growth plan, and we'll very shortly take your questions. But in the meantime, I'll briefly summarize today's presentation.
As I said at the beginning, we're pleased to report strong progress in the first half of 2024 , leaving us well set for the full year. We're looking forward to the rest of 2024, with detailed plans in place for the key September, October trading period. And as a result of our current trading performance, we now expect to deliver full-year results at the top end of our recently revised expectations. Thank you, and we'll now take your questions. And for those questions, the administrative instruction is, we'll start in the room. Please wait for the microphone before asking your question, and then we'll take questions from the webcast.
So if you're following online, please type your question into the Q&A box on your screen, and then we'll read out those questions. So yeah, we'll start in the room.
Morning. Tim Barrett from Deutsche Numis. I had a handful of things, if I can, please. Firstly, around yield, you've obviously done really, really well. You made a comment about competition still raising prices. Just wonder whether you expect the industry to be as inflationary in a lower macro inflation environment for the next 18 months or whatever? Second question, on retention. On slide 28, you don't talk about the number of weeks that you've improved retention by, but can you put it into that kind of language, if possible, please? And then lastly, just a small question on how you think staff costs could inflate, in the next year or so. Thank you.
Yeah. So if we start on competition and pricing, I mean, I think the positive thing that we see is that we think our competitors are pretty rational. And I think they would broadly be looking at the same sorts of datasets and so on that we would. So yeah, hard to predict exactly what they're going to do, but I think we will continue to see that opportunity, and I think it comes back to that very strong perception of value for money that consumers have about this category. So I think that kind of opportunity remains in the near term.
And then, in terms of retention, the average tenure of one of our members is around 17 months. And so with, you know, we start to see some modest pickup on that from the numbers that I just reported on. And perhaps on cost?
Yeah, on staff costs, obviously we had minimum wage increase last year. We're expecting and planning for minimum wage increase at the higher end of the sort of publicly available range, i.e., sort of 6%-6.5%. And I think that the sort of operating model that we have with the rent charges we have with our FTs does give us some ability to sort of mitigate that inflation. And I think so finally, probably also worth just noting that that's another sort of 2 million potential customers with a nice chunky increase in salary.
Okay, thank you very much.
Ivor, I think, was there. Just grab it.
Morning. Thank you. Ivor Jones from Peel Hunt, the Doug Jack deputy analyst for today. You must be very pleased with the success of the investment in your data capability. What does that mean for the future? Is there potentially now scope for more investment in internal or external resources to give you more capability? And the second thing, I don't think you talked about it. In terms of regional pricing, among all the other pricing metrics that you talked about, are we going to see a greater dispersion of pricing across regions? And is that a significant driver? Thank you.
Yeah. So to the first one, I think, yeah, 100%. I think, yeah, data is absolutely critical, and it will drive all of our decision making, and we have made some investment in that capability this year. So I think we've got, you know, we've got good capabilities. We've got a good team in place, so I think we've got good capability. So for the time being, I think we've got what we need when it comes to data, and we've got a capability that we can absolutely build on. So I think it will become ever more important, but I think we're sort of well invested in terms of our data capability.
And then on regional pricing, we put our gyms into segments based on various factors, including geographic location. So we're pricing differently around the country, and it's true to say that, you know, in certain more affluent areas, it will be more expensive. And so I think you sort of continue to see that dynamic of quite localized pricing and back to the data that enables us to be as sort of precise as possible in terms of managing that at a very local level for kind of optimal revenue.
Good morning, it's Anna Barnfather from Panmure Liberum. A couple of questions. Firstly, on CapEx. You talk about the data and the technology, so I just wonder how we should think about how that spending moves year- on- year going forward? And secondly, just interested to know what sort of functions on the new app you're sort of looking at, and how that might help retention and usage. And then finally, on sort of pricing, can you give us a sense of the Off-Peak rollout? How many clubs has that been rolled out to, and where do you think it can get to?
Cap-
I can repeat them if I did.
Yeah, no, that's fine. So, firstly, on CapEx, so I think we have sort of broadly a sort of continual element of reinvestment in tech CapEx, we as we work through sort of the tech stack. And it's, it is a little bit sort of continuous, as in, you know, by the time we've finished upgrading one element, we're almost back to the beginning. So I think there's sort of consistent level of data and tech CapEx as expected. I mean, I think we do have one major project, which will probably sort of happen through 2025 and 2026.
So we may actually see tech spend step up a little bit actually in the next couple of years, but it'll be a lump, and it'll then come back off again.
So is that on the basis at the moment or an expansionary?
That's an expansionary, although and some element obviously is expensed through the P&L as well, depending on what it is. Do you want to talk?
Yeah. So, on app, so, look, I think a few things to say on app. It sort of, you know, it's already the best-rated app in the sector when it comes to app reviews and so on. It's used by a really big proportion of our members, and some of the ways that they use it are quite sort of basic but important things, like getting into the gym. In many cases, they use the QR code to get into the gym, to check how busy the gym is, and so on.
Then we've added things like we've added a sort of a very simple kind of onboarding questionnaire around what your kind of level is and what your objectives are, and then we can give people some sort of suggestions about workout plans. We've added more workout plans on as well, in terms of sort of workout content. So those are some of the things. I think it's already strong and getting better, but also, there's lots more we want to do with it. It's not sort of the finished article, I would say, but we've added those kinds of functions around a bit more personalization for people to help them with their fitness habits. So that's the app.
In terms of off-peak rollout, it is rolled out nationally, so it's everywhere. It's entirely across the estate, and then, as we said, we're sort of continuing to optimize exactly how it's priced in different locations and how we deploy it in promotional campaigns and so on. Is that...?
Yeah, I think so. Those are-
Yeah.
The off-peak question, yeah.
Sorry, back again. Just on CapEx, in terms of the sites you're opening, and the mixture of opening, can you sort of update us on the CapEx cost per site and where you think that will go into next year, please?
Sure. I think at the March presentation, we talked about GBP 1.4 million on a ROIC basis, as invested CapEx basis. I mean, the amount we spend tends to vary on size and location, and obviously, larger sites are more expensive, but London sites are significantly more expensive, partly because of sort of local wage rates, but also because of quite often the complexity of unlocking sites. You know, our sort of simplest sites to do, so sort of pre-made blocks in retail parks are much simplest and therefore much cheapest to do. At the moment, we are trying to unlock as many Greater London and urban residential sites as we can.
I think we will be skewing in the short term to probably slightly more expensive sites than we have done in the past. Probably 1.4-1.5, as we're going forward.
A reminder that if you are following online and you would like to submit a question, then please write your name, organization, and your question in the Q&A box on the screen, and we will read it out on your behalf. Our first question comes from Boris Jasiecki: How do you perceive competition from PureGym? Last year, they raised GBP 805 million. He wonders how much went into UK expansion and if it changes throughout the time.
Yeah, I think on PureGym, as I said before, we see PureGym, irrespective of their sort of particular ownership structure, as a pretty rational competitor when it comes to pricing, and when it comes to site selection, as well. So yeah, we haven't observed any particular change in that regard. I would say that's fairly stable.
... Thank you. The next question comes from Sahil Shan. Please provide more color on new sites outperforming. How many clubs are coming to end of lease next two years, and you could potentially exit? And third point, what is your site cost inflation guidance for financial year 2025? And the fourth point, what % of members are now on the new off-peak price?
Should I go first one?
You first two, yeah, first two, and I'll second to you.
Okay.
So yeah, in terms of site overperformance, yeah, what I shared in the presentation was that, you know, the sites that we've opened this year, when it comes to membership volume, we make an appraisal of the volume that we expect to achieve at certain points on the sort of maturity curve when we do our site appraisal against the 30% return. And it's just to say that in terms of membership volume, those sites are tracking ahead of that appraisal. So yeah, we'll obviously continue to track that progress.
In terms of the estate overall, we've set out our midterm guidance to get to 25% ROIC when it comes to the mature estate. I think we're making really good progress there, and at the full year in March, we'll update on where we are versus that 25%. So new sites looking promising, progress on the overall estate, and we'll give a more detailed update on that at full year.
I think there was a question about sort of likely club exits as well, gym exits. The looking forwards at our sort of contract expiries, I think there may be one or two a year we choose to exit, but I don't expect it to be a material number. There was then a question about inflation guidance. I don't think we're ready to give inflation guidance for next year, but what I would say is the sort of second part of coming off our utility hedges will unwind next year, and I think we'll see a similar benefit in utility rates in 2025, as we've seen in 2024. So that should help us manage inflation costs in 2025.
And the final question, I think, was around off-peak membership as a mix, and it's now sort of high single digits as a percentage of mix.
Lovely. Thank you. The next question comes from Matt Evans at Equity Development. Hi, congratulations on the statement today. Do you think there are any additional levers you can pull on the cost side without negatively impacting the customer experience or your revenue growth initiatives, or are you happy with where you currently are?
I think... I mean, I would say yes. I think, I mean, and it's something that we're looking at exactly that, is how do we continue to build great sites in terms of member experience but, you know, at the more cost efficiently? So, that's a piece of work that's going on currently. And as a general principle, we are a high-value, low-cost business, so being thoughtful about costs, you know, is hardwired into the culture, and that's something that we'll continue to make sure remains the case.
Thank you. Doug Smith from Blackmoor says: "Can you comment on the strength versus cardio mix and what that does to CapEx?
Should I do the first bit?
Yeah. So I think there is a sort of evolution towards strength, resistance, functional training versus cardio. It is an evolution, though. There's still absolutely a role for cardio equipment, but as our sites have evolved, you will just see a higher proportion of the total going on those sort of strength-related activities. In terms of what that does on CapEx?
Yeah, I mean, I think the overall equipment spend is around GBP 253,000-GBP 300,000 per gym, and so really it's... I don't think it's a material shift in CapEx. Obviously, the good news is that strength equipment lasts longer than the cardio, but-
And that trend is also, I think, positive for us because you can't recreate all of that equipment in your bedroom or in a park or whatever. So, you know, you need to be in a well-equipped gym to do those sorts of activities.
Thank you. We have no further questions online.
Okay, so I think that's everything we're gonna cover. I mean, just in summary, to say, as I said, strong first half performance, I think well set for the full year, and now expecting to deliver at the top end of those recently revised expectations. So that's where we are, and thank you for coming.