GB News
A personal trainer-turned-fitness mogul is revealing why most gyms in the UK "fail" their members and how he is fixing this crisis with his fast-expanding business. Speaking to GB News, Transform Hub founder and CEO James Calderbank broke down how he ended up operating dozens of gyms across the country and his ambitious plan to have 100 locations in the near future. The Preston-born entrepreneur began his career as a one-to-one personal trainer, but it did not take long before he spotted a recurring issue among clients. Mr Calderbank said: "Most of the fitness industry is set up to fail people. Giving people access to training and gyms wasn’t the issue, getting people to stick to it was." That early frustration would go on to shape the foundations of Transform Hub, a fast-growing UK fitness franchise built around accountability, community, and repeatable systems rather than traditional gym memberships. Mr Calderbank’s shift from personal training to group coaching proved to be a pivotal step in laying the foundations for his future business. He found that clients were more consistent, and ultimately more successful, when they trained within a structured environment alongside others. The businessman explained: "Moving into group training changed everything. It created accountability, structure, and an environment people could actually succeed in." These results soon outgrew the commercial gym he was operating from. Opening his own site in Preston marked the first step in scaling what he believed was a fundamentally different model. He added: "From day one, the goal wasn’t another gym. It was to fix what’s broken in fitness because most people don’t fail fitness, fitness fails them. The biggest challenge was changing people’s mindset. We weren’t selling gym access. We were selling a completely different approach.” According to Mr Calderbank, said approach runs counter to much of the traditional industry narrative, which often emphasises intensity and motivation over long-term consistency. Transform Hub's founder said: "The industry pushes intensity and motivation, when in reality it’s consistency and a great environment that drive results. It’s easy to get results when you’re hands-on, but much harder to build something that works without you." While discussing when the business really started to take off, Mr Calderbank cited the defining moment when those systems began delivering consistent results across multiple locations. 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Despite this, Mr Calderbank believes this has exposed weaknesses in the traditional low-cost gym model: "People aren’t cutting fitness, they’re cutting what doesn’t work. Cheap fitness is expensive if it doesn’t work." Instead of competing on price, the business has focused on delivering value through coaching, accountability, and community — areas he believes drive long-term retention. In the wake of the Covid pandemic and cost of living squeeze, Mr Calderbank acknowledges that the public is "far more selective now" when it comes to spending money on their fitness. He shared: "They’re asking, ‘Will this actually work?’ People don’t want guesswork. They want structure, guidance, and results. That’s where a lot of traditional gyms fall short." Even in the face of exponential franchise growth, Mr Calderbank asserts that the most rewarding aspect of the business has been the impact rather than Transform Hub's scale. "It’s not the growth. It’s what’s happening to people. We’re helping individuals completely change how they feel about themselves, and building communities around health and support.” The model also extends to franchisees, offering a pathway to business ownership with systems designed to avoid burnout: " Most business owners don’t have freedom. They’ve just bought themselves a job. We’ve built something different." Mr Calderbank’s approach to systems has also been shaped by his personal experience. He has been diagnosed with ADHD, which he says has influenced how he builds and organises the business. Running Transform Hub day-to-day alongside his partner Katie has added another dimension to the journey: " It’s not always easy. But building something together has strengthened our relationship and made the journey more meaningful." For those looking to launch a franchise business in 2026, Mr Calderbank’s advice is clear: focus on creating systems and avoid shortcuts. "Don’t build a business that depends on you. If it always needs you, you haven’t built a business. You’ve built a job. Trying to win as the cheap option is a race to the bottom. Build something that genuinely works, charge properly for it, and back it up. "The fitness industry doesn’t have a marketing problem. It has a retention problem. If you can deliver consistent results, keep people long-term, and build a team that takes ownership, you’ve got something worth scaling." Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter
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