SINGAPORE – The home-grown CRU exercise business will close its remaining studio here on Nov 10.
The shuttering of CruCycle in Duxton Road will follow closures to studios in Orchard Road and Los Angeles and ends plans to expand into Kuala Lumpur, effectively marking the end of CRU’s 10-year run.
Details of compensation for customer packages will be addressed in November once CRU finalises its moving-out process, said a staff member called Lina, who added that clients have been calling expressing concern about being refunded.
CRU had announced plans to close via an Instagram post on Oct 3: “The fitness landscape has evolved tremendously since we opened our doors in 2014, and in all transparency, so have we.
“After many years of navigating and pushing through market fluctuations, fully dedicating our lives to CRU, we feel it is time we take a step back to begin our own new chapters.”
The move was a sudden one, with staff told just “a few days before” the Oct 3 announcement, front desk worker Lina told The Straits Times during its visit to the Duxton Road studio on Oct 9.
The firm did not tell staff why the chain was closing, she said, adding that workers took the news well.
“It has been 10 years, so it will make sense if they decide to close because the market has been quite saturated,” said Lina, 29.
CRU’s management did not respond to queries on Oct 8 and 9.
The firm had plans to open a studio in Kuala Lumpur, posting an announcement on its Instagram page on May 6 inviting applications for staff. But the expansion will no longer proceed due to unknown “hiccups”, an unnamed front desk worker told the ST in a call on Oct 8.
The firm’s Los Angeles studio
