The Gym Group is hoping for strength in numbers

IT WON’T come as a surprise to investors – or fitness fanatics – that The Gym Group is likely to rack up a loss for the first six months of the year.

Gyms and fitness centres have been hit hard during the pandemic and not just because they were shut for months.

Customers at some gyms tried to cancel memberships – which can sometimes cost a fortune – after discovering video classes online that they could do in their homes for free.

But The Gym Group is a low-cost chain and number-crunchers at Peel Hunt believe that will help it to make a full recovery.

They point out that similar budget chains in other countries have rebounded swiftly and strongly.

At the last count, in early July, The Gym Group had lost nearly 200,000 members.

So membership numbers will be the key on Wednesday when the company reports its first-half results – just a month after its premises started to reopen.

If it has limited the number of cancellations – and perhaps even added a few new members in recent weeks – then that is very likely to strengthen the flagging share price, which closed at £1.50 on Friday, down from £2.58 in March.

BRITAIN’S biggest housebuilder will reveal the financial impact of lockdown on Wednesday when it unveils its annual results.

Barratt, which builds more houses than any of its rivals in the UK every year, was more cautious than most during lockdown, and was slower to get its construction staff back to work. That means it is likely to have missed out on sales and profits, according to analysts.

They say that the company tends to be far more conservative than its main rival Persimmon, which has come under fire for shoddy building work in recent years.

Wednesday’s results will show whether it is back up to full speed yet.

ON FRIDAY, the upmarket housebuilder Berkeley will update investors on recent trading.

City scribblers reckon the company, which builds mainly in London and the South East, will have recovered well since lockdown thanks to pent-up demand. Stamp duty reductions will also have helped, given its homes sell for larger sums.

It is also the company’s AGM and the first chance for the board to pay homage to founder and former chairman Tony Pidgley, who died in June after suffering a stroke.

It’s a shame the event will be held behind closed doors, as there will be plenty of shareholders who would like to thank him for turning hundreds of pounds into thousands.