London-Based Ultimate Performance Gears Up for US Expansion
Athletech News caught up with Ultimate Performance CEO Steve Brice as the personal training purveyor is set to open two new gyms in the Los Angeles area
Celeb-loved personal training fitness brand Ultimate Performance (UP) is doubling down on the West Coast and honing in on the Los Angeles’ fitness scene with the upcoming launch of two new gyms in Santa Monica and Century City, California.
Set to feature Watson Pro dumbbells and Atlantis machines, Santa Monica and Century City will bring UP’s portfolio to 26 gyms worldwide, including one in California’s Brentwood area and one in West Hollywood.
Known for its specialization in results-driven personal training—and frequented by stars such as Lamorne Morris of “New Girl” and Glen Powell, who trained at UP to prepare for his role in “Top Gun: Maverick” —UP is building momentum for a broader U.S. expansion.
Founded in London by Nick Mitchell in 2009, UP is now led by CEO Steve Brice. Earlier this year, the fitness brand secured an investment from private equity firm Inflexion — and while UP remains mum on the funding amount, it will power its growth ambitions, including plans to open additional gyms over the coming years.
“Nick created a product which was like nothing else that was out there at the time — personal training done properly,” Brice tells Athletech News. “It was making sure that every client that walked through the doors received a return on their investment.”
It’s a “service-first” philosophy that has carried on to this day, with UP priding itself on its high-end personal training experience led by trainers who are properly equipped with education, incentives and are personally invested in the outcomes of their clients.
And when it comes to outcomes, the results speak for themselves. Prospective UP clients can browse a gallery of impressive client transformations, with the option to filter by sex, age, program type and duration.
The proven methodology led to UP expanding from a single basement gym in London in 2009 to an international fitness brand with locations in the U.K., Dubai, Singapore, Sydney and Hong Kong. Online personal training and coaching is also available.
Certainly geographically spread, but UP’s strategy of targeting expat markets with a significant U.K. presence is one that has paid off.
“The market was ripe in all of these locations,” Brice says. “So you could argue that the locations that we picked to open up in were absolutely perfect, even though most of it was based on intuition.”
UP is now ready to build on its success in Los Angeles, as its West Hollywood location generates about 300 to 350 training sessions a week, Brice tells ATN.
“The demand really has led us to explore further in Los Angeles,” he says. “Most of our gyms operate out of a central business district and given that we weren’t in a central business district in L.A., it made perfect sense for us to be able to go over to Century City. And then in terms of Santa Monica, it’s on Montana Avenue. It’s in full visibility of everybody – from a residential perspective – on a busy corner of a busy highway. So that made perfect sense for us, as well as the Brentwood gym was filling up. It gave us an opportunity to tap into the clients more in the West.”
The Ultimate Performance Difference
Over the past six months, Brice has made frequent visits to U.S. gyms, particularly high-end fitness facilities with personal trainers—an informal case study that ultimately revealed no clear competitors in the market.
“It fills me with confidence,” Brice says of his visits. “Personal training is still not done the same way that we do it, where we keep all our clients accountable, and we also make sure every single personal trainer in our business is invested as the client is themselves. And I’m not seeing that whenever I go to the gyms.”
Brice explains that UP clients never have to worry about personal trainers who are distracted by their phones, lack accountability or are solely focused on getting paid for their time.
“When you arrive at Ultimate Performance, your personal trainer will be specially selected by the gym manager, so you can build trust from day one and ensure you receive the exceptional service all our clients are accustomed to,” he says. “Your personal trainer is as accountable as you are. They are fully invested in your goals and will support you every step of the way. In fact, our trainers are not scored on how many clients they train, but on the quality of the results they deliver and the number of client goals they’ve attained.”
Another part of UP’s strategy that has resonated with its clients is its ability to gamify everything from a data perspective, allowing them (and their trainer) to see their metrics going in the right direction — a winning formula that UP indicates it will build upon in the next 12 months.
“I think the next logical path for us now is to start aggregating other technologies into our technology so they can start seeing how training at UP and how the nutrition advice that we give trainers influences all their other metrics as well at the same time,” Brice says.
UP isn’t interested in adopting a franchise model, though it is one it had considered in the past.
“We think we’ve learned almost every single lesson there is to learn,” Brice says. “So our team is hugely experienced in doing roll out now, particularly in new locations. So I don’t think there’s anything more a franchisee could offer us in terms of market insights into a particular location. We feel we’re best placed now to open up gyms, and we can make sure quality products remain as they are now.”
While fitness studios and gyms often chase the next big trend, Brice says UP prefers to keep things simple. However, its door is open to working with partners that specialize in other areas that complement their services.
“We know what we’re good at,” he says. “We know we’re good at personal training. We know we need to keep investing in our technology and our people to make sure we stay at the very top. We’re going to keep investing in exactly what we do and make sure we’re at the top of our game.”
Update: This article has been updated with new information on UP’s expansion plans
