Important Update on our Business – Our Path Forward
To our valued members,
As you know, the pandemic has had a great impact on the fitness industry here in Alberta, with restrictions and guidelines changing constantly without notice. We continue to incur a majority of the expenses of being open, however with significantly less income. We have pivoted as best we could, but the financial losses are a weight of the pandemic that gets heavier every day.
Fitness providers like us are struggling to stay above water under these restrictions. Ultimately, we have been faced with two choices – hang up our sneakers and dissolve the company or fight to stay in the business. We are choosing to fight, because we know you rely on our gyms for your physical and mental wellness. So, it is with hopeful hearts that we share our path forward with you today.
OUR PATH FORWARD
GYMVMT, HER GYMVMT, Bankers Hall Club and ClubFit brands operate together as Alberta-based International Fitness Holdings Inc. (IFH).
On Friday, April 23, 2021, International Fitness Holdings Inc. and the brands above filed a Notice of Intention to File a Proposal pursuant to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, allowing time to restructure and sell the business to a new owner under court protection. We are pleased to share that we have now signed an asset purchase agreement with a new shareholder group led by a private investment firm based here in Alberta.
Under this protection, we will be opened as allowed under government guidelines, so that we can continue supporting you on your fitness journey at our locations during the restructuring process. Our goal is to keep your fitness club alive with the hope of a promising future. Once the process is complete, our clubs under new ownership can continue to operate and support Albertans on their fitness journeys as a new corporate entity.
At this time, no action is required from you regarding your membership.
OUR CLUBS
As part of this process, we will sadly have to close some of our locations permanently and reduce the size of our team accordingly in the weeks ahead.
It is important to note that the clubs that are temporarily closed at this time are not necessarily ones that will permanently close.
While we have not yet finalized the list of clubs that will remain open or permanently close, we do expect to keep many of our clubs open and plan to have the list finalized by the end of May 2021.
YOUR MEMBERSHIP
There are no changes to gym memberships at this time. You can continue to work out at the clubs we have open and have access to the same services.
Once we share information on the clubs that will be closing, we will work closely with those members to provide more information on their membership options and answer any questions they may have.
There are also no changes to Personal Training at this time. We plan to continue offering Personal Training services in select clubs throughout the transition and beyond.
All private workouts, personal and team training sessions and Group Fitness classes will continue at select locations as scheduled at this time.
While we share this news with you today, we are incredibly grateful to have the chance to keep many of our clubs open so that you, our members, can continue to work towards your goals, and our team can continue to do what they do best – inspire Albertans to live healthy, active lives.
In the weeks to come, we will share more information with you on what this means for your membership as it is made available to us to ensure as smooth a transition as possible. We truly hope we can continue to be a part of your fitness journey.
We are looking forward to brighter days ahead and are determined to come out of this stronger. If there is one thing that this industry has taught us, it’s to always get up, show up and keep working towards your goals — and that’s what we’ll do.
As always, we cannot thank you enough for your continued support, Alberta.
For more information, please view our frequently asked questions.
Sincerely,
Your GYMVMT and HER GYMVMT teams