Four-time Olympic medallist, Rebecca Adlington OBE, and fellow Olympic swimmer, Steve Parry MBE, have successfully completed a management buyout of the swimming lesson business, Swim!, they first founded in 2012.
Swim! operates from 27 venues across the UK, providing children of all ages with a bespoke learn to swim programme. The business delivers lessons to over 30,000 children per week in small class sizes with expertly trained teachers. 12 of the sites are purpose built and fully managed by the Swim! team and the remaining 15 pools are based within schools and sports centres.
The JD Gyms Group acquired a majority stake in the business in May 2022, to help drive the growth of the business and increase the access to swimming lesson provision across the UK. The collaboration has seen Swim! open in five shared locations with JD Gyms, including Chatham and Newcastle.
The MBO sees Adlington, Parry and the current Chief Operating Officer of The JD Gyms Group, Amelia Worrall, step away from JD and form a new owner-managed team with full control of the Swim! business. Worrall will assume the role of Managing Director of Swim! after a phased handover from her COO role at The JD Gyms Group, with Parry retaining an active role in the Swim! business as Founding Director.
Becky Adlington, co-founder and Brand Director at Swim!, said: “This is an exciting time for children’s learn to swim provision across the UK, we have big plans to expand in the coming years. We are committed to creating child-friendly, purpose-built facilities enabling children to learn this vital life skill, with a passion for ensuring sure more kids can access pools within their local communities. We are truly thankful to JD Gyms for their support over the past two years.”
Alun Peacock, Chief Executive of The JD Gyms Group, said: “We are delighted to have facilitated the expansion of the business over the last two years and are excited to see how the management team can springboard growth on the back of this MBO. The MBO comes as part of our realigned strategy, in which we will be focusing primarily on the accelerated growth of the JD Gyms fascia. We would like to wish the team the very best of luck with their continued expansion.”
