health club gym founded preston lancashire united kingdom 1998 1998 founder richard branson headquarters milton keynes england number of locations 239 total 60 uk 121 south africa 36 italy 11 spain 4 portugal 6 australia 1 singapore 3 thailand 2 namibia 1 botswana area served south africa namibia italy spain portugal australia uk singapore thailand owner brait se 80 % virgin group 20 % website www.virginactive.com virgin active is a chain of health clubs in south africa namibia italy spain portugal australia singapore thailand and the united kingdom . contents 1 history 2 controversy 3 accidents and deaths 4 references 5 external links history edit the gym company launched in 1999 1 in preston lancashire 2 as part of richard branson s virgin group headquartered in milton keynes . in 2013 the offices were move to barbican in london leaving a small call centre in mk . in south africa the company bought the assets of the health and racquet club chain after the latter s parent company leisurenet had been placed in liquidation in october 2000 3 for 319.6 million south african rand approximately 24.5 m as at november 2011 . 4 the south african company also runs virgin life care . in 2002 by which point the company had 350 000 members branson sold 55 percent of the company to bridgepoint capital for 40 million . 2 in 2005 branson bought out bridgepoint s stake in the business for 134.5 million . 5 it subsequently expanded its operations in 2004 to italy . 6 by 2005 the company had 25 clubs in the uk 77 clubs in south africa and 12 clubs in continental europe . 5 it opened its first australian club in sydney in late 2008 7 with further clubs launch in singapore and thailand in 2015 . on 1 november 2006 it took over the uk based operation of the more prestigious holmes place chain thus increasing its uk chain of clubs from 24 to 72 overnight . 8 on 26 april 2011 it announced the takeover of uk gym operator esporta s 55 clubs increasing the uk business to 124 clubs . 9 the current group ceo is paul woolf who succeeded founder matthew bucknall in late 2013 . in 2014 virgin active launched a new low cost gym called virgin active red in south africa . the red gyms focuses on first timers who may be intimidated by training by strategically placing exercise equipment in different stages around the gym and further having touch screen computers and other technologies placed in these predefined area s teaching the user how to do the exercise correctly . on 16 april 2015 it was reported that virgin group and their private equity backers had sold 80 % of virgin active to the south african investment firm brait owned by the billionaire christo wiese . the sale price was 682 million for an 80 % stake valuing the business at 1.3 billion including debt and the transaction was completed in july 2015 . the company will continue to operate under the virgin active brand . 10 controversy edit in december 2015 the south african competition tribunal announced that it is investigating virgin active s south african operations and the discovery group for contravening the competition act . the investigation is ongoing . 11 accidents and deaths edit in december 2011 virgin s flag ship club in high street kensington was accused of covering up the death of model and city worker elsa carneau who drowned in the swimming pool at the west london club . a fire crew and paramedics tried to revive the imperial college graduate for almost an hour before she was taken to chelsea and westminster hospital where she was pronounced dead . westminster coroner s court heard that staff at the club administered cpr incorrectly and falsified paperwork relating to cctv checks to pretend that they had been monitoring the pool in a distasteful attempt to cover their tracks . firemen also described how a man who said he was a member of staff had stood by filming efforts to resuscitate carneau on his mobile telephone . pierre carneau the victims father criticised virgin active for not apologising for the accident . he stated it was an accident waiting to happen . if things had been done properly i think there s a chance our daughter may still be alive . virgin active admitted health and safety breaches and was fined 100 000 at southwark crown court in december last year . an investigation found serious shortcomings in the management of risks connected with swimming activity at the club going back to 2009 . 12 13 14 15 references edit branson set to pump 110m from health clubs sale into . . . the independent . london . 25 february 2002 . retrieved 28 november 2011 . the group which started virgin active in 1998 said it would pump the proceeds into developing virgin mobile a b reece damian 24 february 2002 . branson sells health stake to buy new island . the telegraph . london . retrieved 28 november 2011 . mathews charlotte 24 april 2002 . south africa legal bills mounting in leisurenet probe . businessday . allafrica.com . retrieved 28 november 2011 . maphologela kgamanyane 18 december 2000 . south africa future of health and racquet club staff still in doubt . business day . allafrica.com . retrieved 27 november 2011 . a b bridgepoint sells its stake in virgin active back to virgin for 134.5 m . altassets . 5 october 2005 . retrieved 28 november 2011 . walsh dominic may 11 2009 . virgin active seeks to grow la dolce vita . london the times . archived from the original on 14 may 2009 . retrieved 2009 05 29 . hammond michelle 18 july 2011 . branson s virgin active flags aussie expansion . startupsmart . retrieved 28 november 2011 . fildes nic 4 september 2006 . virgin active merges with holmes place . london independent.co.uk . retrieved 4 september 2006 . virgin active buys rival esporta . ft.com . retrieved 26 april 2011 . kollewe julia 16 april 2015 . virgin active stake sold to south africa s brait for 682m . the guardian . retrieved 16 april 2015 . van rensburg dewald 8 december 2015 . discovery accused of quashing virgin planet fitness rivals . city press . retrieved 2016 07 03 . branson s virgin gyms criticised after model drowns in pool . the telegraph . retrieved 2016 09 16 . virgin have never said sorry says father of former model who drowned at health club . the standard . retrieved 2016 09 16 . gym worker took video of drowning swimmer . the times . retrieved 2016 09 16 . richard branson s flagship virgin active club criticised by coroner after pool death of former model . the mirror . retrieved 2016 09 16 . external links edit virgin active global portal virgin active australia virgin active italy virgin active portugal virgin active singapore virgin active south africa virgin active spain virgin active uk v t e virgin group assets lifestyle active balloon flights books care casino experience days games gaming health bank pure voucher electric racing wines travel america atlantic vacations virgin australia holdings australia regional virgin samoa tigerair australia cruises galactic holidays travel city direct hotels chicago limited edition natirar necker roof gardens ulusaba limobike oceanic trains west coast east coast music megastores records virgin emi v festival money green fund money uk money australia media connect media ireland mobile uk virgin mobile australia canada chile france india poland south africa usa produced radio uk france canada toronto montreal vancouver calgary edmonton winnipeg london on italy dubai turkey jordan thailand virgin hitz eazy fm lebanon former comics festival north america festival australia heaven ou fm racing f1 radio ottawa uk radio classic groove xtreme v2 records virgin.net defunct brides cars charter cinemas digital digital help drinks cola vodka electronics energy express films interactive limousines little red megastores uk media television money us nigeria northern rock radio free sun trains crosscountry trains expresscoach vie virginware people richard branson nik powell other losing my virginity timeline of richard branson s business ventures unite charity virgin earth challenge ds virgin racing category commons retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title virgin active & oldid 741624778 categories health clubs in the united kingdomvirgin groupcompanies established in 1998hidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages espa olitaliano edit links this page was last modified on 28 september 2016 at 17 50 . text is available under the creative commons attribution 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