The Little Gym
Intro
Transforming 40 gym sites into a cohesive digital experience
Brief
The brief
The Little Gym has spent the last 45 years helping children build strength, confidence and coordination through movement all around the world. It’s a brand rooted in purpose, but until recently, its digital presence hadn’t kept up. Their ambition to grow from 40 to 60 locations over the coming years was blocked by a fragmented digital estate using different tools and tech stacks, with little consistency or control.
They needed a new platform that would unify their digital infrastructure, streamline content management for franchisees, and deliver a modern user experience for parents, gym owners, and the corporate team.
Testimonial
“Working with Neverbland was nothing short of amazing—I couldn’t be happier with our choice of agency. The team’s creativity, speed, and dedication were next level. They pushed boundaries, brought bold ideas to life, and worked seamlessly with us to create a digital experience that truly resonates with our busy customers. The results? Even better than we imagined!”
Auiti Balestra
Head of Marketing, The Little Gym Europe
The challenge
The challenge
Each gym operated semi-independently, using different tools and templates. There was no central control, little brand consistency, and limited flexibility across languages, content, and user journeys.
Parents often struggled to understand class options or make informed enquiries. Franchise owners were tied to clunky systems, and the corporate team lacked visibility and governance.
On top of that, third party tools that facilitated booking and payment, such as Mindbody and FranConnect, were not used consistently across gyms, meaning there was no scalable foundation for growth
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Approach
Our solution
We led a full digital transformation balancing playful brand storytelling with a futureproof technical stack and a UX overhaul tailored to how people actually use the site.
Modular architecture
We built a multi-site frontend in Next.js, deployed via Vercel for global speed and scalability. A monorepo setup enabled shared libraries across three core experiences: corporate, franchise recruitment, and 39 regional gyms.
Headless content management
Using WordPress as a headless CMS, we set up a multisite environment served via WPGraphQL, with user permissions tailored for different roles: corporate, local owner, and marketing. The system handles 8 languages across 9 countries while maintaining global brand integrity.
Design system
The component library needed to be able to adapt to different locales and gym owners' marketing activities. We designed a flexible component library with 22 reusable modules to power 34+ pages per site, localised, accessible, and on-brand.
Results
The result
We rolled-out 40 sites across May, June and July 2025, completely overhauling The Little Gym’s brand presence and operations internationally. Across the UK and Europe, TLG now operates from a unified, high-performance platform. The result is a digital platform that:
- Delivers faster, more accessible websites
- Empowers gym owners with intuitive editorial tools
- Gives the corporate team real oversight and brand control
- Lays the foundation for international growth
With a refreshed identity and a robust digital core, The Little Gym is better placed than ever to support families and scale with confidence.
