Queues formed around the block when easyGym’s Slough centre manager Leon Mitchell opened the fitness company’s latest exercise venue.

But whereas it usually takes the 35-year-old gym boss about five minutes to drive to work in the High Street’s Observatory Shopping Centre, this journey took him a bit further afield – to the pulsating heart of Nairobi, the bustling capital city of Kenya.

Leon, who has been in charge of the Slough easyGym operation for the past 16 months, has just returned from Africa full of enthusiasm for the Nairobi franchise which is the company’s first venture into the continent.

Due to the fantastic success of the Nairobi opening, easyGym is already planning a second centre in Kenya and another 40 in total across East Africa.

Leon, who was in Nairobi for four weeks, said: “It was absolutely amazing. On the opening day there were queues around the building and we signed up a staggering 3,500 members.

“That’s an enormous number of people and it was marvellous to have such a responsive audience.”

Leon enjoyed his time initiating the Nairobi trainers into easyGym’s very own fitness app called PACK45

Managing Director Paul Lorimer Wing said: “easyGym is aiming to manage more than 400 affordable gyms around the world over the next five years.

"Having already changed the face of gyms in the UK, easyGym is now ready to scale an improved model across Europe, Africa and Asia in countries where gym attendance is rising rapidly.”