Pure Gym has announced that it has secured £9m worth of fresh investment to help support an "ambitious" expansion of the budget health club chain's UK estate by February 2012.

The funding, which has come from its shareholders and Barclays Bank, will allow the group to increase its presence from a current portfolio of 15 clubs to 28 over the coming months. Pure Gym unveiled a new facility in Leicester last month and also has sites in UK cities and towns including Aberdeen; Leeds; Southampton; and two in Birmingham.

A number of new clubs are currently in the development stage - including two in London - and the group is looking to achieve 100,000 members by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Jacques de Bruin has been announced as Pure Gym's new operations director, having left his position as Virgin Active's UK operations manager.

Pure Gym chief executive officer Peter Roberts said: "Since we started in 2009, we have set impressive expansion plans that we continue to build on. "With the new investment, and as we aim to grow to 28 gyms by the end of our financial year and 45 by the end of 2012, Jacques' expertise will be a great asset for us."