Jonathan Davies
Commentary: Davies started his career working as business operations manager for Stelios Haji-Ioannou, one of the ultimate entrepreneurs, back when easyJet only had seven planes. When easyJet floated Davies left and, aged 29, invested money from his shares into a gym, which highlighted the business opportunity for qualified personal trainers.
The Training Room began as a careers provider within the fitness industry, offering fully accredited courses to those looking to start a new career as a personal trainer. In its first seven years, the company grew substantially, becoming the UK’s biggest provider of personal trainer qualifications.
To keep overheads lean and maintain flexibility within the business, Davies initially adopted the easyJet model and outsourced all that he could.
Student numbers doubled and tripled as The Training Room developed a reputation for creating ’industry-ready’ professionals, equipped with the skills necessary to forge a successful career.
The Training Room’s innovative yet scalable training and support model is now being applied to a number of new industries, including beauty and catering, with the aim of training 10,000 students by 2016.
At the close of 2013 a multi-million pound investment from private equity house LDC helped The Training Room to accelerate company growth – and to win the 2014 Solent Deal Awards Management Team and Deal of the Year awards.
Later, in November, The Training Room was the Business Growth Award winner at the Dorset Business Awards.
Quote: “You couldn’t work at easyJet at that time and not think about setting up your own business. That was all any of us talked about.“
Year of Birth: 1974
Business: The Training Room – full-service careers provider, established in 2006, specialising in high-quality professional training across a range of industries
Business Location: Poole, Dorset head office. 21 training academies across the UK
Turnover and year: £9.8 million, year-end December 2013
Description: Educated at Loughborough University, Davies spent four years with easyJet at Luton Airport before founding The Training Room, which he led until October 2014, when former COO Andrew Powell was appointed CEO. Davies now has a non-executive director role focused on strategic development, new partnerships and business expansion
