Sarah Watts & Paul Cluett

Pioneering sports and leisure facility specialist, Alliance Leisure, celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2024. WellNation spoke to founder and CEO, Sarah Watts and MD, Paul Cluett, about the company’s journey

If you’ve walked into a new leisure centre, which doesn’t look much like a traditional leisure centre, the chances are that Alliance Leisure has had a hand in it. Serving the industry for 25 years, the leisure development specialists are behind some of the most exciting, forward-looking physical activity spaces in the public sector today. From climbing walls and interactive assault courses to tenpin bowling and even spas, the company is reshaping the public leisure landscape. At its helm are two industry stalwarts – CEO Sarah Watts and MD Paul Cluett – with a passion for the transformative power of public sector facilities on the health and wellness of individuals, communities and the nation as a whole.

How did Alliance Leisure come about? SW: I launched Alliance Leisure in 1999 after the birth of my third child. I’d been working at Bristol City Council as the Assistant Direct Services Organisation Manager for five years and had seen how ageing leisure centres were starting to fall out of favour with the public.

These facilities, typically comprising a sports hall, swimming pool and gym, were dated and uninspiring. They were losing ground to private health and fitness clubs offering more exciting and relevant facilities. I was sure there was a way to help local authorities evolve their centres to keep pace with trends and better align themselves with what the public wanted.

The result was the launch of Alliance Leisure offering funding mechanisms to local authorities to enable them to develop their leisure facilities. Our first project was securing £1 million for Hull City Council, stepping in after their funding for three leisure centre refurbishments unexpectedly fell through.

How has the company evolved?

SW: After a few years, funding became much cheaper to access thanks to the launch of the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB). It marked a crossroads for the business. In addition to providing financing, we’d been refurbishing and repurposing facilities for some years, mainly modernising gyms and converting under-utilised squash courts into more usable, revenue-generating spaces such as soft play. With the launch of the PWLB, we pivoted the business to become the industry’s first specialist development partner.

With Paul Cluett joining us in 2008, we’ve evolved to become the UK’s leading expert in public sector leisure development. Our journey has been peppered with industry firsts, including building the first public sector spa for Pendle Leisure Trust and Europe’s first Flight Tower with multiple descents, including a zip line and free fall, as part of a £5 million redevelopment of Salt Ayre Leisure Centre for Lancaster City Council. We also delivered the £17 million destination waterpark SC2 in Rhyl for Denbighshire Leisure.

What has driven the company’s recent growth? PC: Being appointed as the leisure development partner to the UK Leisure Framework (UKLF), which is owned and managed by Denbighshire Leisure Ltd (DLL), has truly been a game-changer for us. We’ve seen the value of our projects increase from averages of £1-2 million to projects now in excess of £40 million.

As the UK’s first development framework dedicated solely to leisure, the UKLF offers a comprehensive solution for leisure developments, and with a framework cap of £2 billion we envisage delivering many more projects over the next few years. Open to all UK public sector organisations, it helps mitigate investment risk by utilising expertise in leisure regeneration and maximising effi ciencies throughout the development process. Streamlining the traditional design and build process, the framework avoids the competitive tender process. This can reduce procurement time by as much as six months allowing local authorities to make effi ciencies in the early stages and reduce inflation costs.

All suppliers appointed to the UKLF have extensive experience in the leisure industry, so decisions, designs and execution are all informed by years of best practice. The framework also takes a holistic approach, supporting all aspects crucial to successful and sustainable leisure development, including design, business planning, funding, construction and marketing.

Over the past five years alone, we have delivered over 130 projects through the UKLF, with an additional £500 million currently in development, planning or construction phases. Many local authority teams are thinly stretched and adding a multi-million pound leisure development project to their workload is often beyond their capacity. Under the UKLF, we lead project delivery from concept to completion and even in the months beyond, through our TA6 support team to ensure facilities are successful and sustainable in the long term.

What projects are you most proud of? SW: There are lots of projects that make me proud, but the redevelopment of Pendle Wavelengths in East Lancashire in 2007 is particularly special. The project included Inside Spa, the first spa to be offered in a public sector leisure facility. Back then, spa was still in its infancy and considered exclusive, certainly not something to be found in one of the most deprived areas of the UK. It was high risk, but Inside Spa proved hugely successful and went on to win numerous awards. It marked a new era for health and wellness in the public sector.

PC: Like Sarah, I can name many projects that are memorable for their innovation and impact, but what I’m most proud of is the lifeline we offer leisure services by improving the efficiency and sustainability of their facilities. Sarah mentioned SC2 earlier which was a brand new waterpark on the sea front in Rhyl that played a critical role in Rhyl’s wider waterfront regeneration. The first of its kind for local leisure provision, it included a large indoor waterpark with thrill seeking rides, an outdoor splash pad, food and beverage outlets, as well as the first TAGActive indoor assault course in North Wales and the UK’s first JuniorTAG. The success of this and our other projects demonstrate that redevelopment and reinvestment in leisure provision can yield economic, health and social cohesion benefits for communities, offering an invaluable return on investment. With extensive research and consultation – both with users and non-users – we create centres with a facility mix tailored to community need, that appeal to a broader population base and are economically viable.

We are a tight knit community and I’m proud that we have been able to maintain a sense of family as the business has grown

What does the future look like for Alliance Leisure? PC: The sector is increasingly aligning with health and wellbeing, and the spaces we create are reflecting this change. That goes beyond adding a consultation room here and there; it’s about developing centres that truly refl ect local need with a range of relevant health, wellness and activity services to offer something for everyone in that community.

SW: I always say my greatest achievement is my three daughters, but Alliance Leisure is my fourth child. Since launching the business 25 years ago, we have delivered more than 250 projects with an investment value of over £370 million. With a current turnover of £100 million, we are on track to reach £150 million next year. This level of success only comes with a strong team. Both Paul and I actively nurture talent and strive to create a culture which empowers people to thrive.

We are a tight knit community and I’m proud that we have been able to maintain a sense of family as the business has grown. Our focus now is on steering Alliance through this next stage of growth, while upskilling key members of the team to ensure its continued success in the future.