The Climbing Hangar are the UK’s leading bouldering gym operator offering high quality, accessible climbing experiences across eleven UK wide locations. The brand is dedicated to experienced climbers and novices alike, and seeks to expand participation and elevate the sport. In October 2024, Verlinvest, a global, consumer focused investment firm, invested into the business to support The Climbing Hangar’s growth strategy, which includes opening new sites, acquiring established operations and expanding community focused initiatives. The Climbing Hangar collaborates with athletes like Olympian Shauna Coxsey MBE and leads programs such as Refugees Rock and Hangar Women Rock to drive participation and foster a vibrant climbing culture across the UK.

We partnered with the Chief Executive, Chief Financial Officer and partners at Verlinvest to appoint a hands on, operational COO with proven experience in scaling businesses. They needed a dynamic, people driven leader who could energise and empower the site teams to deliver excellence, whilst also adding strategic value to the Exec. We conducted an extensive, nationwide search across the sport, leisure and hospitality sectors, for candidates who had a track record of scaling businesses within customer focused and commercial organisations. Knowledge of membership organisations and also operating within a PE backed, fast paced environment was also highly desirable.

The successful candidate was Malcolm Armstrong, who has an exceptional track record within the health & fitness industry for leading operators Pure Gym and Virgin Active, as well as more recent experience growing boutique fitness and wellness brands for United Fitness.