Indicating that Gymshark’s sales almost doubled to £400 million (€470m-$543m) in the 12 months ended in July, Ben Francis, the young co-founder and CEO of the nine-year-old British fitness apparel company, tells The Financial Times that there are no immediate plans for it to go public. He confirmed that he has been talking to banks and institutions, but cautioned that he has been doing it as part of a “learning” process to know the options available as the company continues to grow. It now employs close to 1,000 people at offices in Birmingham, Hong Kong and Denver, Colorado. Francis, who owns 70 percent of Gymshark’s shares, said the brand is currently focused on ramping up its presence in the U.S., which already generates more than half of its revenues, following its opening of an office there earlier this year. It has secured Gary Vaynerchuk as an advisor to Gymshark’s board of directors to help the company become “the best contemporary marketer,” particularly in North America. Gymshark says he will assist on e-commerce, digital marketing, business strategy and “consumer attention.” Vaynerchuk has been described as a U.S.-based serial entrepreneur, born in Belarus, who invested early in companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr, Coinbase or Uber.

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