DW Sports Fitness


DW Sports Fitness is a British retailing and fitness business. Founded in March 2009 when Dave Whelan purchased the 50 JJB Sports Fitness Clubs and the attached retail stores for £83.4 million. At the time all the sites were shared between a fitness club and retail store, with most cases seeing the fitness club downstairs and the retail store upstairs. Since that time the group has grown to encompass more than 60 sites, including stand-alone retail stores and stand-alone fitness clubs.

Retail

Association with Intersport

In April 2011, in an effort to boost the profile of their retail stores DW Sports joined the international buying group Intersport. As a result, the Intersport logo was incorporated into the DW Sports Fitness fascias.

Retail sites

In November 2012, the first stand-alone DW Sports retail site opened. Located at the Grand Arcade shopping centre in Wigan, it occupies the former JJB unit.
In June 2020 the company announced that 26 retail stores would be closing down as a result of the COVID 19 outbreak and lockdown.

Rumours following JJB demise

In November 2012, in the wake of JJB Sports's demise. Mike Ashley's Sports Direct was rumoured to have purchased 60 JJB sites for a reported £30 million, leaving the other 120+ stores in the former JJB portfolio. Some reports say DW Sports is not interested in acquiring any further JJB units, whilst others say that they are.

Fitness

In 2016, DW Sports Fitness acquired all 62 Fitness First clubs in the UK from Oaktree Capital Management, selling 14 of those and continuing to operate 48 under the Fitness First brand.