Aptitude Health & Fitness in Farndon launched in the middle of the Covid pandemic at Monument Place Business Park, which is owned by the Barnston Estate.
Founder Gareth Preston has been given planning permission by Cheshire West and Chester Council allowing Aptitude to move into a 16,000 sq ft building adjacent to his current gym.
Gareth, a former athlete from Huntington in Chester, has ambitious plans to grow his successful business and to offer a wide variety of new services and facilities as well as a much bigger space to his members.
He is investing over £200,000 himself in the expansion and relocation which, once complete, will provide employment for an extra 20 people.
A Crowdfunding campaign will launch in February to help raise an additional £30,000 to allow Aptitude to speed up the timescale of the work with rewards for every kind of donation.
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Gareth said: “I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved with the business over the past four years since we opened in December 2020, and excited that we will be able to give members an even better offer with Aptitude 2.0.
“Aptitude was born with little more than a room, a few mats and a machine during Covid.
“We did classes outside, in the hail, rain and snow, online on Zoom to people’s homes and eventually built our indoor training sessions with limited class sizes on opening in Farndon.
“It taught us so much about the power of community and how people wanted to help and support our business, to get fit, to do classes, to enjoy spending time with others once again.
“Now we have outgrown our current home and need more space which is why I’ve signed a lease on a much bigger building at Monument Place which is only feet away from where we are now.”
The new building will come with new changing facilities and a gym floor space expansion with new cardio options and machines.
The boom in Hyrox and Turf games training will also be catered for while gym favourites such as the café will be moving too.
He said: “It’s only thanks to our community we have succeeded and that we’re growing, and we want to create more jobs and to be able to offer more facilities to more people and of all ages.
“We’re looking for community support to help us to get going faster and will be launching a Crowdfunder campaign on social media in February to raise £30,000.
“This will also give people a chance to buy an 18-month membership for the price of 12 months.”
Ed Barnston, Barnston Estate manager, said: “Gareth has built a brilliant business in Farndon.
“I’m delighted that he has been granted planning permission for an even bigger and better gym and would like to thank Councillor Adrian Waddelove for his support of local job creation.”