Gymnasium fails French fitness test

CHIC Parisian fitness clubs chain Gymnasium has been placed in administration on the eve of the New Year beat-the-flab boom. Starlets, executives and their spouses, who were encouraged to sign up for subscriptions lasting as long as three years, are among creditors owed some £6m.

The collapse is in stark contrast to the fortunes of the booming keep-fit industry in Britain. While the UK boasts eight quoted gym operators, building a fitness industry in France has proved an uphill struggle.

Better weather means the French have less need to pay to exercise indoors. The private sector also has to compete with a massive infrastructure of high quality State-sponsored sporting facilities. Even the ski industry is largely not-for-profit.

Barely profitable at best, the French private fitness industry is beginning to consolidate. The biggest chain, Gymnase Club, was sold to Club Mediterranee in April.

Gymnasium's owner, Breton franchise king Denis Mevel, who bought the 20-year-old business from administrators in 1995, has found that in France at least, fitness doesn't pay.