{"id":671390,"date":"2026-07-03T09:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/671390\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T09:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:31:15","slug":"gymshark-founder-in-talks-to-buy-back-part-of-stake-sold-to-private-equity-firm-retail-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/671390\/","title":{"rendered":"Gymshark founder in talks to buy back part of stake sold to private equity firm | Retail industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

The founder of Gymshark is in talks to buy back a portion of the stake he sold to private equity in a deal that created a billion-pound sportswear empire<\/a>, as the 34-year-old looks to increase his control of the exercise clothing brand.<\/p>\n

Ben Francis, who started the business sewing his own gym clothes in his parents\u2019 garage in 2012, sold a 21% stake to the US private equity firm General Atlantic in 2020.<\/p>\n

The deal, which left Francis retaining a 70% stake, turned Gymshark into a \u201cunicorn\u201d company with a \u00a31.25bn valuation<\/a> and has taken his fortune to an estimated \u00a3726m, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.<\/a><\/p>\n

Francis dropped out of Aston University, where he was studying international business and management, to focus on Gymshark \u2013 his third business venture.<\/p>\n

He is now reportedly holding talks with General Atlantic about the potential valuation and size of the stake he wants to buy back, but is not looking to acquire the entire 21%, according to the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

Francis, who is chief executive of the business, is also in talks with banks over the financing of the deal with General Atlantic, which has a representative on the company\u2019s board.<\/p>\n

Gymshark\u2019s stellar growth has slowed as competition has intensified and consumers have become more cautious making spending decisions as household costs have soared in recent years.<\/p>\n

Last year, the company cut hundreds of roles in a restructure to \u201cweather near-term storms\u201d and better service customers in continental Europe.<\/p>\n

Gymshark\u2019s revenues rose 6.5% to \u00a3647m in the year to July 2025, however pre-tax profits fell from \u00a311.8m to \u00a36.9m, according to the most recent financial filing at Companies House.<\/p>\n

Gymshark sells directly to consumers and has opened a handful of high street stores in recent years, including on London\u2019s Regent Street. Photograph: Stephen Chung\/Alamy<\/p>\n

The company, which has maintained profit margins by selling directly to consumers rather than retailers, has opened a handful of high street stores in recent years, including an outlet on Regent Street in central London.<\/p>\n

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In its annual results filing, Gymshark said a move to reduce discounting, and to improve marketing and brand awareness, had resulted in better sales growth.<\/p>\n

Last October, Francis, who received an MBE for his service to business in 2022<\/a>, and now owns a dairy farm in the Cotswolds, was one of a group of chief executives to meet the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as she tried to encourage more companies to list in London.<\/p>\n

Gymshark declined to comment. General Atlantic have been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The founder of Gymshark is in talks to buy back a portion of the stake he sold to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-671390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}