PUREGYM launches in Bromsgrove on Monday (September 30), and the man who runs the company admits he can’t wait for its doors to swing open – because he grew up in the town.

The no-frills gym chain’s chief executive officer Humphrey Cobbold is a former Bromsgrove School pupil who lived in the town for most of his teenage years.

And the 54-year-old told the Advertiser he was delighted to see the company – which has around 250 facilities nationwide – open a gym in a place that meant so much to him.

Mr Cobbold said: “I don’t get to go to see all the sites before they open but I did visit Bromsgrove Retail Park for a tour to remind myself of the area before we made the final decision.

“I’m very pleased that we are opening in Bromsgrove. Bromsgrove effectively, particularly in my sixth form years, really became my home.

“I pretty much lived in Bromsgrove – my friends were there, the parties were there, the pubs were there, the girls were there!

“I hung around Barnt Green, Alvechurch, Chaddesley Corbett, Kinver, Hagley, Belbroughton and around the town of Bromsgrove – and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Mr Cobbold will be visiting the gym four days after it opens, adding: “I’m really looking forward to seeing it in the flesh, so to speak, having seen it as an empty shell quite a few months ago.”

The married father-of-three won a scholarship to Bromsgrove School back in the 1970s and says he loved the area.

He added: “I’ve got really fond memories of knocking around the area. I always found it a really down to earth place.

“Although I was at a private school, I didn’t think people were particularly posh or landed gentry.

“I thought it was mainly people whose parents had worked hard in life and wanted to pay for an education for their kids, but who didn’t have a lot of airs and graces. Salt of the earth sort of people.”

After moving away from Bromsgrove, Humphrey studied sciences at Cambridge University but put aside that calling to enter the business world.

He worked for management consulting firm McKinsey for 15 years and then turned a business called Wiggle into the world’s largest online retailer of triathlon, cycling and running gear.

Then, in 2015, he joined PureGym – a firm is widely recognised to have revolutionised the workout industry with affordable prices, contract-free memberships and 24/7 opening hours.

And Mr Cobbold is confident the new gym will prove a hit in Bromsgrove.

He added: “I think what we’ve done over the last 10 years, since this business was started and in which time we have become the leading operator in the country, is that we have redefined the gym industry.

“We have made fitness more accessible, more affordable and more flexible for people by significantly reducing the typical price of a membership, removing the burden of asking people to sign up for 12-month contracts, yet making sure the quality of the facility is still up to the standard that people expect.

“That underpins our success in all our sites around the country and if I’m honest I feel it’s a bit overdue that we bring it to Bromsgrove as well.

“I’ve got no reason to believe – looking at the early numbers – that the people of Bromsgrove will be different from people around the country.

“They seem to be signing up ready for this gym to open which is great and I’m very excited about that.”