The long awaited opening date for the Ben Dunne Gym in Portlaoise has been announced.
The former Dunnes Stores mogul initially revealed that he would bring his franchise to Laois last year and originally set a start date of Spring 2018.
That passed a few months ago and the company said that they were running behind on the project.
However, via their Instagram page over the weekend, they announced that the Portlaoise branch would open on Monday August 20.
They said: “Excited to announce the opening date of our new gym in Portlaoise. Register your interest online at www.bendunnegyms.com.”
The gym will be located at the Lismard Business Park and will open for business at 6.15am on the day.
The news comes just months after Ben Dunne said that “business is booming” at his network of gyms after recording operating profits of €3.7m last year.
In an interview, Mr Dunne said that revenues at his gym business touched almost €11m last year.
“We are trading extremely well at the moment,” he said.
Mr Dunne confirmed that he exited the UK last year when selling off his three gyms there. He said that he decided to exit the UK business “as we were never going to play in the First Division over there – we were always going to be a small player”.
“If you were not going to play at the top-class level in the UK, you are as well off out of it. I got an offer and took it. I didn’t lose money and I didn’t make money on it – I am happy to be out of the UK,” he added.
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