Tenreformer, the dynamic reformer Pilates franchise from Ten Pilates has secured its first site, in Islington, London.

Ten Pilates, which has been operating in London since 2007, announced the launch of the Tenreformer franchise business in April. It is backed by Foresight VCT, which has invested an initial £1.5 million.

The 2,800 square foot studio is expected to launch mid to late October, with more expected to be announced soon. They will have 16-20 reformers.

“We’re running this site ourselves as a ‘concept store’. But we have three more franchised sites in the pipeline, hopefully with two of them open in time for Christmas, and we're aiming for 10 by this time next year,” Ten’s non-executive director, Justin Rogers told HCM

The first sites will all be in Greater London, but strong interest has been shown from potential franchisees elsewhere in the UK, as well as Europe and the Middle East.

“It's been a real testament to the strength of the brand that people who want to run their own businesses have been so keen to partner with us, and leverage our reputation and expertise to help them do it,” says Rogers.

“As pioneers of DRP in the UK, Ten has two decades’ experience setting up, opening and running successful Pilates studios, which we’re able to put at our franchisees’ disposal – that’s significantly longer than pretty much everyone else in the sector.

“We’ve also partnered with Balanced Body to create custom Reformers. They’re designed to add exercises and exclusive options within Tenreformer’s class content that won't be available in a standard DRP class.

“But probably the single biggest USP is that all coaches will be trained exclusively in the TenAcademy, which trains all Ten's instructors, and which has earned a pretty impressive reputation for the quality of its professional training over the last 20 years or so.”

Ten Health & Fitness founder, Joanne Matthews, is interviewed for Talkbalk in the current HCM about how she was inspired to launch the business after a serious car accident made her realise the dearth of rehabilitation services available.