06 Jul 2022
Virgin Active opens at Milan’s sleek new Bocconi University
BY Frances Marcellin
Virgin Active and Myrtha Wellness have joined forces to open a health club and wellness centre at Milan’s new Bocconi University.
The entire campus was designed by Pritzker-prize winning architects, SANAA, whose work includes the New Contemporary Art Museum in Manhattan, the Christian Dior building in Tokyo and La Samaritaine department store in Paris for LMVH.
The fitness and wellness facilities are located on the first floor of the Bocconi Sport Centre and include Virgin Active’s 3,000sq m health club, a 50m Olympic swimming pool and 25m training pool and a running track and sports courts for basketball, volleyball, and five-a-side football.
“We decided to open our new club at the Bocconi Sport Centre because it's one of the most innovative concepts in Italy," said Luca Valotta, chair and GM of Virgin Active Europe. "The club is open to the entire city and offers all the features of an international campus, including a culture linked to wellness and sport, which we have always supported”.
A partnership with Technogym provides the fitness centre with over 200 machines for cardio. There are also cycle, boxing and yoga studios, cross-active and grid areas (for functional training) and a reformer Pilates space. A 160m running track provides athletes with an indoor running experience that isn’t confined to the treadmill.
The spa area has a whirlpool bath (with five hydromassage seats with air and three with water), Finnish sauna and Turkish bath, which is a slightly lower temperature and humidity than the accompanying Mediterranean bath. There are also hot and cold sensory showers (with aromas) and an ice fountain.
This is Virgin Active’s 13th club in Milan and 38th in Italy since its first opening in the country in 2004.
Virgin Active currently has 250 clubs across eight countries (South Africa, United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Namibia, Thailand, Singapore and Botswana). It employs over 3,000 members of staff and supports 167,000 members worldwide.
BACKGROUND BRIEFING
Parts of the company restructured in 2021 as a result of pandemic pressures and Virgin Active announced a new CEO in March 2022, following the acquisition of the nutrition assets of The Real Foods Group for £28.6 million and the impending retirement of current incumbent, Matthew Bucknell who will stay on as an advisor.
Dean Kowarski, founder of The Real Foods Group, is taking up the reins at a time when Brait and Virgin Group, the existing shareholders of Virgin Active, have announced they will be investing an additional £20.2 million into the business.
Members of the investor consortium in Real Foods will invest £18.2 million and Titan Premier Investments Limited, an investment vehicle of Christo Wiese, will invest £50 million to become new shareholders in Virgin Active.
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