Health club operator énergie Group has acquired budget gym operator Nuyuu for an undisclosed sum from Dragons' Den star James Caan.

The deal includes four of the five Nuyuu clubs - at East Grinstead, Stevenage, Newbury and Slough. Énergie plans to rebrand the clubs over the next three months. The fifth Nuyuu club in Scotland is not part of the deal.

The takeover marks the end of the road for the Nuyuu brand, which was jointly founded just 12 months ago by serial entrepreneur Caan and Ben Silcox, a former LA Fitness national sales manager.

Caan's investment vehicle Hamilton Bradshaw was one of the primary investors in the Nuyuu venture, with Silcox taking up the role of managing director.

As part of the takeover deal with énergie, Silcox will join the new business as a partner and will retain responsibility for both day to day operations and growth of the four clubs under the énergie brand.

The deal is part of énergie's expansion strategy, which has seen the group add more than twenty clubs to its portfolio this year.

The latest acquisition of Nuyuu follows the takeover in May 2010 of Ireland's market leading Jackie Skelly Fitness brand, which included nine 25,000 sq ft "wet" clubs to the group and took the total number of group clubs in Ireland to seventeen.