I just joined Bannatyne's Gym

[NinjaExodus]

Duncan Bannatyne is sticking up for women on Twitter. I was a member of my local Bannatyne's 10+ years ago and was looking for a gym to join since mine closed down.

Bannatyne's was the obvious choice as it offers genuine single sex changing areas, as a bonus it's bloody lovely and VERY reasonably priced too.

100% recommend.

Hes great on Twitter. He always debates his point and won't be bullied into silence. I've followed him for a while and he's extremely helpful to the endless customers ego tag him in things but also doesn't take any shit if they're being rude and unreasonable.
I really don't think he'll be forced into changing his view on this he's very clear in his outlook and responsibilities to female members.

Ahh there's not one near me, but just given him a follow on Twitter. It's nice to see a high profile man standing up and vocally defending women's rights

I don't know about other gyms in the chain, but the demographics of the Bannatynes I belong to definitely favours the more mature customer. I can't imagine how the many middle aged members (of whom I'm one) would react if men were given the opportunity to use the women's changing rooms. The need for a male engineer to enter the women's changing room to fix the swimsuit spin drier a few weeks ago made the young female receptionist extremely uncomfortable and was only to be done when she was sure it was empty. I suspect Duncan Bannatyne knows his customer base pretty well apart from anything else.

I’d love him to take over my local Pure gym - their policy is that anyone can use any changing room the feel suits them. It’s a 24hr gym with keypad access and very few staff ‘after hours’, and it’s a very dark and gloomy building so there’s no way I’d go back there whilst they are Pure.

That’s awful @KittenKong I (probably naively) hadn’t realised there were health clubs and gyms where anyone could just choose their preferred changing room. Aside from feeling uncomfortable with a man ‘identifying as a woman’ using the ‘women’s’ changing room, the fact that it’s the only place without cameras, means it’s an open invitation for sex offenders.

I wonder what would happen irl if there was a challenge.

His gyms have been clear and consistent about the single sex policy for years. Even when receiving abuse for it in the past, he's explicitly said that any male trying to access female facilities will be removed.

Well he has but there's a lot of staff. They would have to be trained up on what to do etc.

He’s a good’un

Just been reading his twitter feed. He's a good man.
There's one of his gyms near me (eyes lockdown extra inches ) - I'm going to treat myself to a day session and consider getting a more permanent membership.

That's good to know.

He's a canny businessman.

Probably does feel that way I'm sure.

But the vast majority of women who go to gyms want this. So it's a good move and and got him lots of word of mouth advertising. I'll get more joining because of this.

@FrancesGumm

OP - how lovely to hear that - if ever I decide to join a gym I will look for a Bannatynes

Not just gyms, some have spa facilities too. I got a good deal on Groupon or similar before, for a day visit for two.

spa.bannatyne.co.uk/

Tried to book a visit. V disappointed it asked what my gender was

I joined a couple of months ago and chose Bannatyne’s because of the stance on single sex facilities. Good to see him take a stand so publicly.