Gym+Coffee slips to 2021 loss as business spends on expansion

The Gym+Coffee clothing retail business is enjoying “significant growth” in 2022 on the back of new store openings, its chief executive has said.

Co-founder and chief executive Niall Horgan confirmed the Irish brand is to make its biggest store investment so far with a new outlet due to open at Dundrum Town Centre in south Dublin over the next number of weeks. The athleisure brand, backed by Brian O’Driscoll and singer songwriter Niall Horan, currently operates 13 outlets and is aiming to open a further four in 2023.

Mr Horgan was commenting on new accounts which show that Gym Plus Coffee Ltd recorded losses of €183,424 in 2021 amid its ongoing expansion, down from a profit of €928,879 a year earlier. He said that the business was “healthily profitable on the operating basis” last year and the loss emerged from one-off expansion and fundraising costs.

The accounts state that during 2021, the firm raised about €3 million. One-off costs included moving the business’s logistics and distribution centre to the UK, Mr Horgan said. The business currently employs 170 and with the new store opening at Dundrum and other roles to be filled “we will be pushing towards 200″, he added.

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This year revenues should surpass 2021′s figure of about €20 million Mr Horgan claimed, citing new stores opened in Belfast and Limerick as well as improvements at existing branches in Liffey Valley and Kildare Village.

The opening of a new outlet in Dundrum, where the firm has had a store since 2018, “will be a great moment for us”. He said: “Dundrum was our first two-week pop-up lease that we took and it has been phenomenal success for us. Now we are taking a 10-year lease and putting significant investment into the fit-out and elevating the experience for customers to the next stage of retail.”

He described 2022 as “a successful year” overall, with the company raising funding of €17 million led by Castlegate investments, alongside West Ventures, a Californian investment and marketing firm. New store openings for 2023 will be “focused in the UK”.