Brisbane boxing gym chain UBX seals $88m UK expansion deal

Rockhampton-born entrepreneur Tim West and former boxer Danny Green have signed an $88m deal to roll out their UBX boxing strength gyms across the UK and Ireland.

UBX founder Tim West expanding the business in the UK.

Tim West grew up wanting to be a either a world champion boxer or footballer.

Instead the Rockhampton-born entrepreneur has become a champion in the business world, rolling out his chain of UBX boxing fitness gyms around the world.

West tells City Beat that Brisbane-based UBX, formerly known as 12RND, has just sealed a $88m deal with one of the UK’s biggest gym operators Empowered Brands to open 250 UBX outlets across the UK and Ireland over the next couple years.

Empowered Brands already operates 100 énergie fitness gyms across Europe. West says the deal is financially backed by British investment group RM Funds, which saw the potential in combining boxing with exercise.

UBX, which West founded in 2015 with world champion boxer Danny Green, is set to be the world’s largest boxing fitness chain in the world by next year.

“I grew up either wanting to be a professional boxer or play rugby league,” says West. “I later moved into exercise science and business. I formed UBX because I realised that boxing has always been undervalued in the fitness world.”

UBX has grown from a single outlet in 2016 to a $28m business with more than 90 gyms in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Boxing champion Danny Green is a partner in UBX.

Despite the incredible growth of the business, West says there are still a lot of misconceptions about what boxing strength was all about. “It is not about getting your head punched in,” says West. “There is no physical contact except the pads on your hands.”

He says his partner Danny Green has designed programs based about the traditional three-minute rounds in boxing with sessions based on a person’s resilience and fitness.

“It has been compared to ballroom dancing because it involves balance, choreography and timing,” West says.

He says fewer than 10 per cent of his clients, aged between nine and 65, have had any form of boxing experience and more than half are ladies.

West says that according to a Harvard Medical School study fitness boxing is one of the most popular ways to stay fit as an adult, with the benefits of a traditional boxing workout without the risks of taking punches or suffering head trauma. It also constantly “requires you to think, change your position, and change your posture.”

He adds Covid-19 has been a challenging time for the company but the business was now primed for growth.

“Before Covid, network gym numbers grew by 41 percent in 2019,” he says. “During 2020 and 2021, which were years heavily affected by lockdowns, the number of gyms in the network still continued to grow at circa 14 percent per annum.”

“The growth exceeded all of our expectations in a period where many fitness providers retracted in size.”

UBX founder Tim West expanding the business in the UK.

GOLDEN HIRE

BRISBANE-BASED copper and gold explorer SolGold has appointed veteran executive Ayten Saridas as its new group chief financial officer.

Saridas, who will assume her new role next month, was previously group CFO for US-based and ASX-listed Coronado Global Resources where she led the company through the largest global initial public offering for a metallurgical coal company in 2018.

Prior to this she held a number of CFO and executive roles with major ASX listed companies across the energy, resources and infrastructure sectors, including Santos, AWE Limited and Woolworths. The appointment comes as SolGold ramps up its activities across the Andean Copper Belt in northwestern South America.

SolGold has close to 60 geologists on the ground in Ecuador exploring for economic copper and gold deposits. SolGold chief executive Darryl Cuzzubbo says Saridas brings extensive international experience in funding capital intensive and complex industries to the role.

SolGold has appointed veteran executive Ayten Saridas as its new group chief financial officer.