David Turner

David Turner, who owns River Bourne Club with his brother, Aron, has been at the forefront of the physical activity industry for nearly 50 years. Turner has launched, invested in and operated a wide range of companies, from indoor football centres and health clubs to wearable fitness technology fi rms. In June 2022 he also acquired The Leisure Database Company – the sector’s leading data analyst and insight fi rm. WellNation spoke to Turner about his journey.

A qualified surveyor, Turner worked in the property sector and as a town planner prior to opening his first club in 1979. Called City Squash, the facility was groundbreaking as it offered both squash courts and a gym. Turner’s concept – of offering racquet sports alongside a separate, full-service health club – has since become popular across the world.

In the early 1990s, Turner’s vision and eye for emerging trends led him to setting up the iconic LA Fitness brand in the UK, alongside business partners and fellow industry legends, Fred Turok and Jeremy Taylor. Turner says the origin story of the brand was a slightly unusual one.

“In 1993 Princess Diana was illegally photographed in a health club in Isleworth called LA Fitness,” he says. ”The owner, as we know, caused a lot of controversy and troubles for the club.

“At that time I was working with my two partners Jeremy Taylor and Fred Turok. We already had three clubs – including one in Victoria – and had just signed two further leases in Golders Green and Bromley. We were looking for a name to brand them all together and, when we heard that the LA Fitness club was struggling, we bought it as we liked the name.

“We made it profitable, relabelled all the other clubs LA Fitness and it did very well. We built the portfolio from the three original clubs to more than 70 clubs in the UK, Ireland and Spain with over 2,000 employees. We floated on the main London Stock Exchange in 1999 and, eventually, sold the company to MidOcean Partners in 2005.”

Tech ventures

Following the sale of the LA Fitness business, Turner set up an investment vehicle to capitalise on new opportunities in the sector. The intention was to use the company – called ADDLeisure – to identify ventures that had the potential to grow and invest in them.

“When I left LA Fitness following the sale to MidOcean Partners, I felt there were things that the physical activity and fitness industry hadn’t really developed yet – areas which had huge potential,” Turner recalls. “For example, I thought we were short on technology in the sector, which I still feel even now.

“While fi tness technology is now on a completely different level, I think that there’s still room for a much more joined-up approach.”

Turner then partnered with Alan Fisher, the founder of fitness chain Holmes Place, who had similar views on the sector as Turner did. The pair also brought in wearable tech entrepreneurs Paul Landau and Ben Margolis. Together, they pioneered FitBug, which was a wearable pedometer and tracker that allowed the recording and downloading of data. The data could then be used to help manage people’s activities. It was ahead of its time and had real potential and Turner and his team worked with some big organisations, including BUPA and Pru Health.

“FitBug was brilliant,” Turner says. “But then something called Fitbit emerged in Silicon Valley and took most of what we were doing.

They had the resources and tools to build their chip technology into a US$3.5bn business.

“Meanwhile, because our investment was mainly UK-based and probably lacked the imagination they had in Silicon Valley, we never really reached the same size. But while we didn’t reach the heights that Fitbit did, I feel that I was definitely vindicated in my view regarding the possibilities – and potential – of wearable and tracking technologies.”

The industry aims to integrate with preventative healthcare by connecting data on people and activity

Data is king

Having spent 50 years in the sector, Turner remains very much involved in the industry – and is still keen to identify new opportunities and pioneer change. Through his ownership of River Bourne Club, he is reshaping the relationship that a private health club can have with its surrounding community.

ADDLeisure’s acquisition of The Leisure Database Company is also a result of Turner identifying a potential growth area.

“LeisureDB is one of the most trusted names in the industry,” he says. “It is the go-to when it comes to data, because it has been collecting data consistently for 20 years.

“Having invested in it and, as its chair, we are planning for the company’s future. The reports we are working on are industry leading and it is now up to us to deliver our plans for the next five to 10 years. Let’s face it - the world seems to change every 5-10 years, rather than every 100-200 years, like it used to. So we’re now looking to develop new products to get to the next stage.

“The work LeisureDB does will evolve and we will work in partnership with people and organisations. The physical activity industry is looking to establish itself as part of a preventative healthcare system, so we’re also looking to supplement the data of what is going on in the industry with what is going on with the people. It’s a piece of work which we are looking at now.”