Gymshark

Gymshark is a fitness apparel and accessories brand, manufacturer and retailer headquartered in Solihull, United Kingdom.[4]

Gymshark
IndustryApparel
Accessories
Sports equipment
Athleisure
Founded2012 (2012)
FoundersBen Francis
Lewis Morgan
HeadquartersSolihull, England[1]
Key people
Ben Francis (founder)[2]
ProductsSportswear
Fitness fashion
Number of employees
215 (2018)[3]
Websitegymshark.com

Founded in 2012, Gymshark creates and distributes its own range of performance fitness wear for men and women.[4]

In 2020, the company was valued at over £1 billion.[5] Ben Francis is the majority owner of the company.[6]

History

2012-2015: Early History

Gymshark was founded by school friends Ben Francis and Lewis Morgan in 2012.[7] Both aged 19, they set up the brand while studying at university.[8] Francis studied at Aston University[8] and worked as a delivery driver for Pizza Hut when he first established the company.[9]

Gymshark started out life as a supplements business, drop shipping bodybuilding supplements through its website.[10] In 2013, it began designing and manufacturing its own fitness apparel.[11]

Initially Francis manufactured the garments in his parent’s garage on a made-to-sell basis using a sewing machine and screen printer he purchased with £1,000 of savings.[12] During the first year, Gymshark made £500 in sales per day.[12]

In 2013, the company exhibited at the BodyPower fitness trade show at the NEC arena in Birmingham where it sold out of all its stock in the first day.[13] After the show, Gymshark’s Luxe tracksuit went viral on Facebook, generating £30,000 of sales within 30 minutes.[13][14]

When the company’s revenue reached £250,000, Francis and Morgan both left university to focus on Gymshark full time.[15]

In 2017, Morgan exited the business to focus on his other ventures, property development company Ernest Cole and fashion label Maniere De Voir.[15]

2015-present: Expansion

In 2016, Gymshark was named the UK's fastest growing company in The Sunday Times Fast Track 100.[16]

In 2018, Gymshark moved from its office in Redditch to a new 42,000 square foot headquarters on Blythe Valley Business Park.[17] In the same year, Gymshark made sales of £100 million.[3][18]

In 2019, the company opened a new 8,000 square foot office in Hong Kong.[19] In September that year, Gymshark launched the Gymshark Lifting Club, a gym and innovation hub, on the same site as its headquarters in Birmingham.[20][21]

In August 2020, US private equity firm General Atlantic purchased a 21% stake in the company in a deal which valued the company in excess of £1 billion.[5][22][23] The company said it would use the funding to further expand globally.[5]

Current Operations

Gymshark’s products are sold directly to consumers in 180 countries via websites in 13 languages.[24] The company employs 499 people globally.[9]

In 2019, Gymshark made sales of £175.2 million with profit of £18.6 million.[25] Around half of its turnover was generated in the USA.[24] The company’s full-year revenues to July 2020 were £258 million.[5]

Locations
Gymshark's office in Blythe Valley Park

Gymshark's head office is at Blythe Valley Park in Shirley, West Midlands.[17]

Gymshark also has an office in Hong Kong, and in 2019 the company opened its North American office in downtown Denver.[19][26]

Products and marketing

Gymshark sells fitness apparel for men and women[27] including workout vests, hoodies, t-shirts and leggings.[28] While the brand was initially aimed at men, by 2020 approximately two thirds of sales were to women.[29]

Gymshark was one of the first brands to make extensive use of influencer marketing by partnering with social media influencers, including YouTube body builders Nikki Blackketter and Lex Griffin.[3] The company continues to market its product range through social media influencers.[29] As of 2020, the company was paying 125 influencers to market the brand on social media.[29]

Gymshark has over 5.1 million followers on Instagram.[30][9]

The company does not have any brick-and-mortar stores, but did open its first pop-up shop in London’s Covent Garden in February 2020.[24][31]

References
  1. "How Gymshark grew by 200%+ year on year and hit £41M in sales (Updated 2019)". Beeketing.
  2. "Ben Francis". Forbes. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  3. Bearne, Suzanne (2018-09-30). "The 26-year-old with a £100m sportswear brand". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-12-28.
  4. "About Gymshark". Gymshark UK. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  5. "Subscribe to read | Financial Times". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2020-10-20. Cite uses generic title (help)
  6. "Gymshark founder to become UK's richest self-made person under 30, with firm valued at £1bn". inews.co.uk. 2020-08-14. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  7. Jones, Tamlyn (2020-08-14). "Gymshark secures new backing to target North American market". Business Live. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  8. Rhys, Steffan (2020-05-19). "The 27-year-old from Bromsgrove who's already worth well over £100 million". BirminghamLive. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  9. "Gymshark: Ex-pizza delivery boy's sportswear firm worth over £1bn". BBC News. 2020-08-14. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  10. "About Ben Francis". Ben Francis. 2020-05-05. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  11. "How I Started The UK's Fastest Growing Company". Ben Francis. 2020-05-03. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  12. Times, The Sunday. "How Gymshark founder Ben Francis created his sportswear empire". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  13. Editor, Ashley Armstrong, Retail. "Ben Francis: fitness fanatic builds Gymshark into a £1bn business". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-10-20.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  14. "How I Started The UK's Fastest Growing Company". Ben Francis. 2020-05-03. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  15. Russell, Katie (2020-10-07). "'I don't think it's healthy to retire at 28': Meet Gymshark's £100m co-founder, Lewis Morgan". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  16. Evans, Peter. "Gymshark, launched by Ben Francis, bulks up". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  17. "Gymshark secures future of global HQ in Solihull". Blythe Valley Park. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  18. Leighton, Mara. "Fitness apparel startup Gymshark was started by a 19-year-old and is now one of the fastest growing companies in the world — here's what the clothes are actually like". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  19. "A Look Inside Gymshark's Hong Kong Office". Oktra. 2019-05-29. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  20. Media, Insider. "Gymshark to create gym and innovation hub". Insider Media Ltd. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  21. "Gymshark open £5 million innovation hub containing the best gym in Europe". Building Products. 2019-09-03. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  22. "Gymshark secures investment from General Atlantic valuing company at over £1 billion". General Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  23. "General Atlantic Invests in $1.3 Billion Gymshark Brand". Bloomberg.com. 2020-08-14. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  24. "Gymshark achieve fittest profits in Britain | GBCC". www.greaterbirminghamchambers.com. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  25. "Turnover and profit soar at Gymshark". NK Media. 2020-03-26. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  26. "Gymshark one of the UK's fastest growing companies, opens North American HQ in Denver". cresa.com. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  27. "Gymshark takes a bite of the sportswear market". Drapers. 2018-05-02. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  28. TWK. "Fast Track". Fast Track. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  29. "How social media made Gymshark". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  30. "@gymshark is on Instagram • 4.8m people follow their account". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2020-10-20.
  31. "Gymshark Pop-Up". Covent Garden London. Retrieved 2020-10-20.


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