By Roux van Zyl

Richard Branson's South African gym network has announced a R1.2-billion expansion project that will involve upgrading their beachfront premises and building another Virgin Active club in East London.

During this five-year project, high-tech training equipment like iPod-compatible treadmills will be introduced so that club exercise fanatics can download a movie while working out.

Kiddies' facilities will also be revamped and change-rooms overhauled.

The project is aimed at attracting new members to the club, which has experienced strong growth at its 80 Virgin Active clubs countrywide.

Virgin Active's managing director, Mark Field, said he was planning to add two new clubs to the Eastern Cape one to East London and one to Port Elizabeth's existing three.

"We definitely see growth opportunities in the Eastern Cape, where our past growth had been positive. Obviously most of our business is situated in the greater Gauteng area, being the country's economic hub," he told the Daily Dispatch yesterday.

Field said he was still in negotiations over a suitable site for the new East London and Port Elizabeth clubs, but he hoped to finalise this within the next six months.

In all, the health club plans to add 40 new clubs to its existing network, with the first four due to open in Johannesburg and Pretoria by the end of this year.

"There will be some interesting changes in equipment at the existing clubs. It will vary across the clubs, but we will introduce a broader range of equipment aimed at ladies and senior citizens. More work will be done on the children's section in terms of edu-tainment," he said.

The club hopes to increase its membership base by 50 percent in the next three years by targeting people aged 40 and over.

The average age of Virgin Active members is 32 years.

Field said worldwide the health club industry has seen strong growth as more and more people were looking for a solution to the negative health effects of modern lifestyles.

"The more money people make, the less time they have to exercise or take a walk. This makes their need for exercise greater," he said.

"South Africa has seen significant economic growth over the past few years and we are seeing increased demand for health clubs across a broader section of the population. This translates into a need for new health club facilities as well as a segmentation of our product in order to better serve the market."

Virgin Active South Africa is part of Branson's famous Virgin group and was launched in South Africa in January 2001 after the collapse of the Health and Racquet Club.

With 170 clubs across South Africa, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy, Virgin Active is the fifth largest health club group in the world.