Leejam ‘on track’ to recover from pandemic repercussions: Chairman

Ali bin Hamad Al-Sagri, Chairman of Leejam Sports

Leejam Sports Co. (Fitness Time) is on its way to recovery from the negative repercussions of COVID-19 outbreak, Chairman Ali bin Hamad Al-Sagri told Argaam.

Leejam is forecast to close this year with a similar performance to the one reported in 2019, excluding the impact of centers’ closure in February 2021, provided that the market conditions remain unchanged.

The company managed to weather the challenges that followed the Kingdom’s decision to close fitness centers to curb the pandemic outbreak. Revenue from membership and personal training (PT) activities jumped by more than SAR 190 million, despite a rise in overall costs of revenue related to more operating days, compared to Q2 2020. Accordingly, the company managed to post higher revenue and net income.

Leejam has so far several Xpress fitness centers; nine for men and four for ladies. It is still in process of improving operational efficiencies at these facilities, which will likely boost profitability for 2022.  

“Leejam operates 138 fitness centers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and it targets a network of at least 150 centers by 2021,” Al-Sagri added.

Leejam turned to a net profit after Zakat and tax of SAR 43.9 million in the first half of 2021, against a net loss of SAR 84.8 million in the year-ago period. In Q2 2021, the company reported a net profit after Zakat and tax of 50.9 million against a net loss of SAR 91 million a year earlier, backed by higher revenue, Argaam reported.