Another useful extract for Edexcel’s Paper 3 Examination on the ‘Health & Fitness Industry’ from APT’s Complete Context Companion

APT are experts in producing resources for pre-released contexts, themes and case studies – we have been doing this for 17 years (see extracts of feedback received below), and we will be publishing our Complete Context Companion for use with Edexcel’s A Level Pre-released 2017 Context in 4 weeks’ time, which can be pre-ordered now.

Following on from the ‘Starter Activity’ we posted last term for you to use to launch the Context to students, below is a summary of some of the merger, takeover and acquisition activities that have taken place in the Health and Fitness Industry over the last 10 years.  This relates to ‘bullet one’ of Edexcel’s Research brief for this year’s Paper 3 context examination, which can be accessed here. 
Figure 5: Mergers, Acquisitions and Takeovers in the Health and Fitness Club Industry between 2006 and 2016 

  • In 2006 Virgin Active acquired Holmes Place’s 47 UK clubs.
  • In 2006 Duncan Bannatyne purchased LivingWell Premier clubs.
  • In 2007 Nuffield Health acquired Cannons Health clubs.
  • In 2008 énergie group acquired 24 Motorcise Healthy Living Centres.
  • In 2009 énergie group acquired 8 Fitness First clubs.
  • In 2010 énergie group took over Jackie Skelly Fitness (Ireland) and acquired 4 Nuyuu budget gyms.
  • In 2011 Virgin Active took over rival gym operator Esporta’s 55 sites.
  • In 2013 American private equity group CCMP Capital Advisors bought a majority stake in Pure Gym.
  • In 2013 Phoenix Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in The Gym Group.
  • In 2013 Private equity firm TDR Capital bought David Lloyd Leisure.
  • In 2014 Pure Gym and The Gym group attempted to merge.
  • In 2014 Encore Capital purchased Third Space from private equity firm Graphite Capital.
  • In 2014 Sports Direct acquired 13 gyms from LA Fitness.
  • In 2014 Nuffield Health acquired 9 Virgin Active Sites.
  • In 2015 Banntyne Group acquired two Clarice House sites, and the Xpect Leisure Health Club.
  • In 2015 Pure Gym acquired LA Fitness’s 43 clubs.
  • In 2015 Private equity firm Brait SE purchased a controlling 80% stake in Virgin Active.
  • In 2016 DW Sports Group acquired Fitness First UK’s 62 venues.
  • In 2016 Nuffield Health acquired a further 35 Virgin Active sites.

Relevant research leads, relating to each of the above, are given to students in the ‘Research Tasks for Students’ section of our Complete Companion for the Pre-released Context, which encourages students to independently research and make notes on each of the 5 bullet points listed in Edexcel’s Research brief.  Detailed information for teachers is, however, also provided in our ‘Detailed Investigation into the Context’ for Teachers, which examines each of the 5 bullet points listed in Edexcel’s Research brief in depth.  This includes information on types of growth, including reasons for mergers and takeovers, the difference between horizontal and vertical integration, financial risks and rewards, as well as problems arising from rapid growth – as these areas of the specification (on Business Growth) could easily be the basis of questions in the examination, relating to bullet 1 of Edexcel’s research brief.
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