Ben would ‘rather go bust’ than open gyms
GYM boss Ben Dunne says he’d rather ‘go bust’ than ‘bury people’ – so will not reopen his fitness chain until there is a Covid-19 vaccine and the virus is flattened.
He added that he doesn’t think ‘gyms are a safe place for people to be using at the moment’.
However, despite the health fears, other gyms around the country have opened, while bringing in strict distancing rules for their members.
They have also implemented intensive training for staff on how to operate under the new rules while keeping people safe.
The former Dunnes Stores boss has insisted, however, that he ‘wouldn’t dare to open’ until a vaccine or effective treatment is found to fight the killer virus.
‘I’d far prefer to go bust than... be burying people who are using my facilities when I know they aren’t safe,’ he told RTÉ Radio’s Today Show yesterday.
He fears the 80 staff working for him could lose their jobs, but the gyms’ website has announced three of its ten sites – Blanchardstown, Cherrywood and Portlaoise – plan to reopen in September or October.
Mr Dunne, 71, said the stark possibility of staff losing their jobs as a result of the coronavirus pandemic was as ‘plain as the nose on his face’.
But he added: ‘I don’t think gyms are a safe place for people to be using at the moment.
‘It’s impossible to keep people apart... it’s impossible to make people wash their hands often enough, it’s impossible to stop people talking to each other.’
He added: ‘People are codding themselves... if there’s a pandemic it’s not recommendations [that] are needed; you have to make things happen, you must do this.’
The father-of-four also said that unless he had the right people to carry out the instructions, he ‘wouldn’t dare to open’, adding that if the country keeps going the way it is now, ‘we’ll all go down together’.
Mr Dunne, who was arrested for cocaine possession and soliciting while on a golf holiday in Florida in 1992, is a former director of family firm Dunnes Stores, one of the country’s largest supermarket chains.
Despite his gloomy outlook, rival gym chain Westwood’s six gyms reopened on July 1 after staff were given extensive training and new distancing rules for members were introduced.
It has limited capacity to all of its fitness classes, and a spokesman said: ‘We’ve blocked off pretty much every second machine and we’ve spaced them out as much as possible – spaced out to two metres.’ In its pools, only one swimmer at a time is allowed into each lane.
The Flyefit chain, which has 15 sites in Dublin and one in Cork, announced yesterday it is extending the amount of time for which people can work out in its gyms when they reopen on Monday. People will be able to stay in the gym for a maximum of 75 minutes, with slots available to book 24 hours in advance. The gym had previously said the slots would only be 60 minutes in duration.
The showers in the changing rooms will remain closed but lockers will be available.
‘Spaced out as much as possible’