F45 Training

“Pension money is something we tend to forget, however, if you have built up a reasonable pension pot it’s a great way to help create and develop something that you are passionate about.” – Rene Swart, Financial Director, F45 Training Blackhorse Road.

F45 Training is an exciting and revolutionary franchise gym based in Walthamstow London, providing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to the public. With class sizes of up to 36 people, F45 boasts 2 personal trainers on the floor at all times assisting members, correcting their form, technique and posture. The gym space features televisions around the studio floor prompting users with the appropriate exercise at each exercise station.

F45 Training visited the innovative online business finance platform, Alternative Business Funding (ABF), who used their automated processes to determine that an approach should be made to the team at Pension-led funding (PLF). The finance being raised by F45 Training was required to help expand their successful concept into new territories, and the ABF team knew that PLF provided an appropriate option to achieve this.

John Evans, ABF Operations Manager describes the process:

“With over 140 financial products on the platform we use our proprietary filtering process to determine the best funder for each business and project. In the case of F45 it was clear that PLF provided the right mix of finance and flexibility for their requirements.”

After completing the financing Rene explained “Pension-led funding has released much needed capital into the business, and this will be used to fund the new fitout at our studio. While the project did get delayed massively due to Covid (we were due to start our fit out in May) if all goes well, we will have a January opening.”

Rene described her thinking as she explored raising finance for their expansion “We are highly geared already with the 1st location and lots of lenders would have felt the exposure is too much. To open these gyms you looking at around £320k, and it would have been a difficult task for me as FD to go out to the market and raise this – I actually don’t think it would have been possible.”

Rene explained what caught her eye and how PLF was able to help F45 Training “My day job is to raise wholesale funding and as I am also an accountant, I have a passion for funding and finding new, diverse and clever ways of unlocking money. Pension-led funding is different, it’s not debt in the traditional sense of the word where you end up paying large amounts of interest to a lender.”

“It’s a clever way of putting your own money to work and receiving a decent return on pension money.”

Pension-led funding allows business owners to stay in control, while helping to build the pension pot and at the same time, making much needed capital available.

“I absolutely love it and have already spoken to some people in the F45 network to consider this. “Pension money is something we tend to forget, however, if you have built up a reasonable pension pot it’s a great way to help create and develop something that you are passionate about.” Rene concluded.