GLL and Tone Leisure to join forces in the South West

8 May 2015: From 1 June 2015, Tone Leisure (Tone) is set to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of GLL, the UK's largest and most successful leisure charitable social enterprise. Tone will continue to directly operate its 13 leisure and sporting facilities across the South West of England until 1 December 2016, when a full merger is planned with GLL.

Both Tone and GLL are charitable social enterprises and leisure trusts with similar values and a mission to ensure the whole community benefits from high quality, affordable leisure services, as well as improving health and wellbeing by helping to get more people, more active, more often.

Formed in 1993, GLL now operates over 170 leisure centres across the UK, providing affordable access to top class sporting facilities including the London Aquatics Centre in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The organisation has seen massive expansion across the country, recently taking over the management of leisure facilities in Belfast on behalf of Belfast City Council this January. GLL also manages wider cultural services such as libraries, children's centres, as well as health intervention and sports development inititiatives including the GLL Sport Foundation, one of the largest independent support programmes for talented young athletes in the UK.

Tone has developed to become a significant regional player in leisure across the South West of England since it formed in 2004, with over 600 staff and a yearly turnover of £7.8m, it now operates leisure facilities in three separate local authorities. It is anticipated that Tone will become part of the GLL group from 1 June 2015, who now employ over 8000 staff.

The Tone board structure, which connects the local service with its communities, will remain in place working closely with the GLL board until a full merger to ensure a successful transition.

Mark Sesnan, Managing Director, GLL, said, "We are very pleased that Tone will join the GLL family, where we both share the same core values, to increase physical activity, reduce health inequalities and improve social inclusion.

"This is a great opportunity for Tone Leisure to team up with the UK's largest and most successful leisure charitable social enterprise, to further strengthen and develop services, as well as retaining local jobs - all whilst benefiting from the knowledge, experience and economies of scale of GLL."

Karen Arnold, Chair of Tone Leisure,said, "We are excited that Tone will soon be joining the GLL Group. This is not a decision that we have taken lightly. We recognise that the leisure landscape is changing and that we needed to look at options to enable us to be part of robust structure going forwards. We believe that our decision to link with GLL, who importantly share the same ethos and social values, provides the best opportunity for us to continue as a respected and valued provider of high quality leisure services to customers and communities across the South West."

For more information visit www.gll.org.

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Notes to the editor

About GLL

Established in 1993, GLL is the largest UK-based charitable social enterprise delivering leisure, health and community services. We operate over 170 public sport and leisure centres and 28 libraries (including three prison libraries) in partnership with over 30 local councils, public agencies and sporting organisations. Our leisure facilities enjoy more than 40 million visitors a year with over 490,000 members.

Alongside our core leisure and library divisions, we also operate children centres and in sport and legacy development, health intervention and education sectors - as well as offering the GLL Sport Foundation, one of the largest independent support programmes for talented young athletes in the UK.

For more details contact:

Donna Mitchell

PR and Communications Manager, GLL

T: 07813 458 258

E: donna.mitchell@gll.org