Inside Virgin Active’s social wellness strategy

Virgin Active’s relaunched Mayfair club in London is more than a flagship refurbishment. By combining training, recovery, longevity, nutrition, co-working and community under one roof, the operator is making a significant bet on a broader definition of its health club offer – backed by a substantial programme of investment across its estate

Virgin Active has become the latest health club operator to add more layers to its traditional gym proposition. The move reflects the direction of travel of the wider sector – recovery has moved closer to the mainstream, Pilates has boomed, wellness services have expanded and operators have increasingly thought about how members might use their clubs for more than an hour-long workout. At Virgin Active Mayfair, those strands have deliberately been pulled together. When the central London club reopened in May this year, following an extensive redevelopment, it was billed as Virgin Active’s first UK “Social Wellness Club” – a concept designed around training, recovery, nutrition, work and social connection rather than exercise alone.

It represents what Virgin Active describes as its most complete club concept yet in London and follows versions already developed in Milan, Cape Town, Sydney and Doha. The group currently operates 224 clubs across nine countries, serving more than one million members.

For the UK fitness market, however, Mayfair is perhaps most interesting for what sits behind the facilities themselves. Rather than treating wellness services as additions to the gym, Virgin Active is making them part of one interconnected experience – increasing the number of reasons why someone might visit and the amount of their day the club can potentially support.

PEOPLE NO LONGER WANT WELLNESS TO SIT AROUND THEIR LIVES – THEY WANT IT TO SUPPORT HOW THEY ACTUALLY LIVE. THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THIS SPACE HAS BEEN DESIGNED TO DO

Elena Chambers, country director at Virgin Active UK, explains: “The new look Mayfair Club is a complete reimagining of what wellness can look like and a clear statement of where Virgin Active is heading. People no longer want wellness to sit around their lives – they want it to support how they actually live. That’s exactly what this space has been designed to do.”

TRAINING REMAINS AT THE CENTRE While the marketing efforts and messaging have focused on social wellness, Mayfair remains fundamentally a place to exercise. Its training offer includes five dedicated studios covering Combat, Lift Club, Mind & Body, Reformer Pilates and Tower Pilates, alongside a separate one-to-one Pilates suite, personal training and a fully equipped gym floor.

What has changed is the infrastructure surrounding that core fitness product. Recovery provision includes a contrast spa with Finnish and infrared saunas, cold plunge and vitality pool, together with a 20m indoor swimming pool. A dedicated recovery zone provides heated hydromassage beds and Hyperice technology, while longevity treatment rooms house physiotherapists, osteopaths and performance specialists.

PLACES

Food and work are part of the proposition too. The club includes the Kauai Café, with a focus on protein-rich nutrition, alongside co-working lounges, private meeting rooms and call booths. A concierge service has also been introduced to assist members with bookings and other needs.

Taken individually, few of these components are revolutionary. In principle, what Virgin is doing is not a new concept – premium clubs have long offered pools and spas, recovery technology, physiotherapy and allied health services. Co-working areas have appeared in clubs for some time too. The significance, then, is in bringing all of these aspects together deliberately.

The idea of a Social Wellness Club is less a gym with additional amenities, but a place that increases the number of “needs” that a single membership can fulfil. A member at Mayfair can come and train before work, take a call or hold a meeting from the club, eat there, use recovery facilities and return for a class later in the day.

For Virgin Active, it represents a shift from asking how often somebody exercises to asking how frequently – and in how many different ways – they interact with the club.

Rob Lewis, experience director at Virgin Active, says: “This is a fundamental shift in what a Club can offer. Virgin Active Mayfair has been built around how our members actually live – bringing together training, recovery, work and community in one place. It’s about removing friction and creating a space people can rely on every day.”

IT’S ABOUT REMOVING FRICTION AND CREATING A SPACE PEOPLE CAN RELY ON EVERY DAY

MORE THAN A MAYFAIR EXPERIMENT Virgin Active is not positioning the redevelopment as an isolated showcase in London. The company says Mayfair signals the next stage of investment in its UK portfolio, which currently features 31 clubs. Having invested £12.2m during 2024 and 2025, Virgin Active plans a further £55.6m of investment during 2026 and 2027.

Refurbishments have become an important part of the strategy – also from an financial point of view. Figures reported by Virgin Active majority shareholder, Brait, show UK revenue increased by 9 per cent in the year to March 2026, with growth attributed to higher membership yields, strong sales at refurbished clubs and lower churn. Brait also said further capital expenditure was needed to upgrade the remaining UK estate, supporting both retention and membership yield. Virgin Active had around 144,000 active UK members at March 2026.

The figures place Mayfair within a much larger investment story. Earlier this year, Virgin Active secured a £175m capital injection from existing shareholders through a rights issue. Brait is contributing £108m of that amount, with the financing intended both to strengthen Virgin Active’s balance sheet and provide capacity for its refurbishment programme and pipeline of new clubs.

The transactions are expected to reduce group net debt relative to EBITDA from 3.7 times to 2.0 times. Together with refinancing and changes to convertible preference shares, Brait expects them to reduce Virgin Active’s annual interest costs by £21.5m, creating further capacity to invest in growth.

The investment case is being supported by stronger trading, too. Virgin Active’s EBITDA increased by 37 per cent to £110m during 2025, while Brait has pointed to high returns on capital from both new clubs and refurbishments. While the £175m is a group-widecapital raise, rather than a UK refurbishment fund, Mayfair provides a tangible example of the sort of premiumisation that sits at the heart of that strategy.

The test for Virgin Active will be whether the Social Wellness Club proposition produces deeper engagement: members visiting more frequently, using more services, building stronger relationships with the club and ultimately remaining members for longer. In the meantime, Virgin Active’s strategy suggests that, at the premium end of the market at least, the definition of what constitutes a health club is continuing to expand. While fitness is still central to the proposition, it’s no longer the sole selling point.