THE owner of a Helensburgh fitness centre is celebrating this week ahead of securing a bigger and better premises for his business in the town.

Steve Losh, who runs The Journey, which is currently based in West Clyde Street, will upgrade to a new hub at 26 Colquhoun Square once the building is fully fitted out.

The move is welcome news for Steve who has endured a tough 2020 so far, with the fitness industry hard hit by coronavirus lockdown restrictions which forced the closure of gyms across the country for several months.

Seeing light at the end of a difficult trading period, Steve said The Journey’s new home marks the culmination of work to achieve a personal dream three years in the making.

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He told the Advertiser: “The Journey has been open for three years on the seafront and I said back then that I wanted to expand it.

“The new building has been laying empty for the last three years, we were at maximum capacity where we were and were running out of space, so this was our dream to move into this new premises.

“My goal is to try and keep the current place and operate it as a wellness centre, to support mental health, PTSD, sports therapy.

“We’re quite far on with the works and the plan is to open the new centre in the first week of January.”

Under the Scottish Government’s tiered system of coronavirus restrictions, gyms in Helensburgh and Lomond, and Argyll and Bute - in level 2 of the localised measures - are permitted to open.

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However nearby centres in West Dunbartonshire - level 4 - must remain closed, and Steve is all too aware that many businesses are facing an uncertain end to the year.

He added: “It has been a challenging couple of months waiting to hear about new restrictions, seeing other gyms close, but I believe all good things happen for a reason.

“Some people have crumbled, some businesses have folded but some have adapted during the last few months and we’ve been one of those.

“I’ve tried to grow the business into something that’s going to be very, very special for the town.

“Customers can look forward to a brand new yoga studio, in-body scans, we’ll have twice as much space for small personal training and we’ll be able to put on more classes.”

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