The Gym Group, the fast-growing operator of low-cost gyms, put its online platforms through their paces ahead of the crucial January trading period, with support from thinkTRIBE.
Background
Founded by ex-England squash player John Treharne as a single-site gym in 2008, The Gym Group has seen rapid growth. With its affordable price point, no contract, and 24/7 opening times, as of 2025 it comprises 252 sites across the UK, with 12 new sites opened and total revenue up 11% year-on-year in 2024.
As a digital-first business, The Gym Group’s technology-led model re-engineered the traditional gym format, removing costly, under-used facilities and enabling a focus on core operations and customer service.
January is traditionally The Gym Group’s busiest trading month, both for existing customers and new members, and volumes have risen sharply each year as its estate and digital audience have grown. Jasper McIntosh, CIO at The Gym Group, explained:
“Digital strategy is at the very heart of our business, everything at The Gym Group links back to our digital platform – whether it’s customers booking classes on the kiosk or making enquiries on the app or website.”
Challenge
Protecting CX & revenue during January’s surge in sign ups
The natural but significant surge in demand each January, combined with heavy media activity, drives substantial increases in web traffic.
To protect revenue and maximise on the New Year opportunity, The Gym Group needed to ensure the site could handle peak volumes while maintaining high performance and a seamless user experience.
Solution
A realistic, journey-based Load Testing service that takes the strain
The Gym Group engaged web performance and Load Testing specialist thinkTRIBE. With its complex tech stack and multi-supplier network, The Gym Group needed a partner who could coordinate across teams and technologies. thinkTRIBE’s consultative approach and understanding of how each third-party system interacted ensured the testing process ran smoothly from start to finish. As Jasper McIntosh noted:
“thinkTRIBE’s consultative approach was a key factor in us selecting them.”
As The Gym Group runs an always-on business, thinkTRIBE ran testing between 12 a.m. and 3 a.m. to avoid disrupting customers. The site configuration and numerous transactional routes added complexity when modelling the high traffic seen at peak. To ensure representative results, thinkTRIBE focused on a subset of journeys that mirrored the most common routes to a transaction and tested these under realistic website traffic profiles.
Results
thinkTRIBE’s managed Load Testing helped deliver a 25% increase in how many transactions the site could handle per hour.
The Gym Group CIO, Jasper McIntosh highlighted:
“thinkTRIBE took a proactive approach to managing the project from start to finish and any niggles relating to complexities were identified and resolved quickly and efficiently. They also delivered a comprehensive report which showed key insights for improvements, with actionable optimisation takeaways that could be implemented straight away.”
“For digital-first brands like The Gym Group, success depends on remaining in a state of readiness and delivering optimal CX across every customer journey,” added Deri Jones, CEO at thinkTRIBE. “We were delighted to help optimise their platform ahead of the crucial January trading period, giving confidence the site could handle 25% more transactions against target.”
Following the success of the Load Testing project, The Gym Group also uses thinkTRIBE’s Monitoring Service to keep a close eye on the journeys including the join journey 24/7, ensuring consistent performance and a seamless experience for members throughout the year.
