After celebrating its 25th anniversary last year, Fusion Lifestyle has called in administrators after a “prolonged period of financial difficulty.”
The trust said it had not been able to identify a viable pathway to ensure its long-term financial stability, despite efforts to restructure and secure investment.
“The leisure sector has faced sustained financial pressures, including rising operational costs, particularly energy costs, reduced government funding and ongoing post-pandemic recovery challenges,” said a statement from Fusion Lifestyle.
The trust has appointed Nadeem Sweiss and Adam Stephens of S&W Partners LLP to oversee the organisation with the aim of securing a new operator for the leisure centres.
Fusion Lifestyle is telling customers it’s “business as usual”.
A statement on the website said: “One of the advantages of administration is that it allows for the charity to continue trading while the joint administrators work to ensure the continued opening and continuity of the leisure centres.”
Somerset Council has stepped in to protect its five facilities and is looking for a new operator to take over after the interim period.
South Hams District Council has already awarded Parkwood Leisure a short-term contract to run its four leisure centres in Devon.
In a statement the council said: “For several years, we’ve repeatedly stepped in to support Fusion to keep these centres open but a few weeks ago, it warned us that it was likely to enter administration, or possibly liquidation if agreement could not be reached over the funding of the period of administration.
“As a result, whilst we worked with Fusion to avoid liquidation and the centres closing, we also started looking for alternatives to ensure that the services could transfer as quickly as possible.”
Parkwood Leisure has also picked up a contract to run two further leisure centres from West Devon Borough Council.
Charnwood Borough Council in the Midlands, which has three leisure centres, expects to appoint a new operator in the coming months. It is still planning a £2.7 million investment in a new heating system at Loughborough Leisure Centre.
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council has already appointed Serco Leisure in partnership with Leisure Solutions Community Trust to manage its sports centres going forward.
Active Lambeth will take over the operation of Brockwell Lido.
Buckinghamshire Council is keeping Wycombe Rye Lido open as it looks at future options.
The City of London Corporation has said that Golden Lane Leisure Centre in London will close on 30 April. A £10.4 million refurbishment is scheduled to start in December and the City Corporation is beginning the process of finding another operator for the facility when it reopens. It is also looking at ways to keep tennis courts open and exploring local alternatives for centre users.
Fusion Lifestyle’s last set of accounts for the year to end of December 2022 showed income of £50 million, costs of £58 million and losses of around £11 million.
The organisation reported over £86 million of income and £14 million profit in 2019 and lost £13 million in 2021 and £6.9 million in 2022.
