Ronald van der Vis, chairman of low-cost European fitness firm Basic-Fit, will step down next month and be replaced by Cornelis (Kees) van der Graaf.

The change is based on rotation rules established during the operator's initial public offering (IPO) in June 2016. van der Vis has been chairman of the supervisory board since 2013.

 The board will propose at the operator's general meeting on 16 May the appointment of van der Graaf as chairman for a four-year term.

 van der Graaf is chairman of GrandVision, a member of the Carlsberg board in Denmark and a board member of ENPRO Industries in the US. He is also chairman of FSHD Unlimited, a bio-tech start-up he founded in 2014 to develop a therapy for the FSHD muscular dystrophy.

van der Graaf had a 32-year international executive career at Unilever, with his last position being President Europe and a member of the executive committee.

   In addition, Basic-Fit's supervisory board will propose the appointment of Rob van der Heijden as an additional member for a four-year term.

 On stepping down from his role, van der Vis said: “During the last four years, Basic-Fit has developed very well, both in terms of results and operations. In addition, the brand Basic-Fit is stronger than ever before. The company is well positioned for the next growth phase. With the successful IPO last year my mission has been accomplished. I particularly like to thank CEO René Moos for his trust and good cooperation in the past years.”

 René Moos added: “On behalf of Basic-Fit, I would like to thank Ronald for his contributions and valuable advice and supervision during his time with the company. I am very pleased that we can propose a strong replacement for Ronald and that we can further strengthen the supervisory board with Rob van der Heijden.”

 Once the appointments have been made, the supervisory board will consist of Kees van der Graaf, Carin Gorter, Herman Rutgers, Hans Willemse, Pieter de Jong and Rob van der Heijden.

Basic-Fit has more than 400 gyms in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain and Luxembourg.