OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE – A CHANGE AT THE TOP

After almost 10 years as managing director Jon Johnston will be leaving Matrix Fitness in September 2017. Jon has steered the growth and development of Matrix Fitness, the commercial subsidiary of Johnson Health Tech UK Limited, from a turnover of below £3 million in 2007 to a peak of over £40 million, establishing Matrix as one of the UK’s leading and fastest growing commercial fitness companies.

Along with his team, Jon has led the development of the company’s UK infrastructure which has played an integral role in the growth of the business. Most notable has been Matrix’s innovation and support within the affordable fitness market. Matrix’s capability has supported the rapid expansion of key clients such as Pure Gym, The Gym Group and Xercise4Less, but also more latterly, a surge into the public sector. Matrix’s industry impact can also be seen in its support of organisations such as InstructAbility which engages disabled people in the fitness sector, and as a strong supporter of UK Active, on the supplier forum and as official partner for the FLAME awards. During Jon’s tenure Matrix has also engaged with closely charities such as Action Medical Research and other not-for profits to great effect and received a special commendation from Help for Heroes for their contributions to the charity.

Jon’s love for and knowledge and connections within sport, and cycling in particular, has been instrumental in Matrix developing successful partnerships with a wealth of high performing teams and individual athletes with the aim of increasing awareness and participation in physical activity, especially targeting groups such as women and girls, and those with disabilities. Successful partnerships include Wasps Rugby, Redbull Racing, Lotus F1, cyclist Laura Kenny and other Olympians and Paralympians. The company’s innovative approach to marketing has also seen two years of the Matrix International Show, a showcase for the business with education, networking and Matrix’s legendary parties. Matrix have also been credited with creating a boom in women’s cycle racing and were fundamental in the development of the women’s tour, which is now the leading professional stage race in women’s cycling.

Jon said, “So much has happened in ten years at Matrix that I am proud of, but the most significant achievement has been our dramatic growth from being a relative unknown brand to now being one of the market leaders. This has been in a large part to creating a great team of people with a very clear vision of what we wanted to achieve.  It’s been amazing to see this team develop and evolve and push through some of the boundaries within our industry. I’m looking forward to announcing more details about my future projects soon and I can say that I am currently planning to work initially in high performance sports including professional cycling. I will also be staying very closely involved with the international fitness industry and I have some big projects planned for 2018 working with some innovative new brands”. The search for Matrix’s next managing director is well advanced and Matrix Fitness is hopeful an announcement about a successor can be made soon.