Our Story - Puretec

The history of Puretec Ltd starts back in 1946 when weightlifter and fitness pioneer Walter Marcyan opened the Marcy retail store in America. The success of his store meant that by 1947 he could open the first House of Health gym in LA to encourage people to go out and get fit. He claimed that “The primary goal of our physical education and athletic programmes should be that everybody should be stronger and healthier and that they should have attained the knowledge to maintain these blessings through later life.”

By the 1950s, Marcyan realised that going to the gym wasn’t always easy or convenient, so he began designing gym equipment that could be used in the home. This led to the foundation of the Marcy Gymnasium Equipment Company, and by 1959 he had created the first-ever all-in-one multigym for the home.

Marcyan’s work took off, and by 1961, his home gym equipment had become very popular. It was then that he decided to start publishing an educational magazine called “Physical Power”. It was designed to educate coaches, athletes, and students so that they could make the most out of their weight training. Then, in 1971, Marcyan was introduced to martial artist icon Bruce Lee who specifically asked for a gym to be shipped to Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was with this equipment that Lee built his iconic physique for the film Enter The Dragon.

Over the next 20 years, Marcyan’s work continued to progress to new heights so that by 1981, Marcyan had become so well known that he was personally chosen to rehabilitate President Ronald Reagan after a failed assassination attempt.
The following year, in 1982, an American family-owned fitness manufacturer called Impex was launched in the US. After making a deal with the Marcy Gymnasium Equipment Company, they made a deal with Escalade to produce multigyms, Smith machines and weight benches on a larger scale bearing the Marcy name and distributing them throughout the US.

In 1992, Impex acquired the full rights to the Marcy brand for distribution in the US. Over the pond, in the UK, a small home fitness business called Puretec Limited was being founded, which went on to become the exclusive UK distributor of Total Trainer Home Gym Equipment in 1998. Though relatively unknown, the turn of the century saw Puretec Ltd moving into larger premises and starting to sell home fitness equipment through eBay.

The success that Puretec Ltd saw from this meant that in 2003 they had reached the top 3 seller ranking and Powerseller status on eBay and even landed themselves an invitation to the Premium Seller Awards in London. In addition, the success from eBay allowed them to launch their own website purefitnessandsports.co.uk. In 2005, Puretec Ltd caught the eye of Impex, and so began their relationship as they acquired the rights to Marcy, making them the UK’s only distributor of the brand. At the same time, they also gained themselves the rights to Everlast, becoming a major Everlast seller.

Over the next 11 years, Puretec Ltd partnered with Amazon UK before launching the PureFitness and Sports collection in 2012. The result of this meant that they went on to become major suppliers to big-name retailers Littlewoods, Very, QVC, Argos and Costco UK.
Finally, in 2016, after years of sharing the Marcy brand, Puretec Ltd became an official member of the Impex Inc group and gained the rights to supply home fitness brands Steelbody and Bionic Body within the UK.

By 2019, Puretec Ltd was one of the UK’s foremost suppliers and retailers of home gym equipment with a wide range of brands, giving customers plenty to choose from. The result of 73 years of hard work meant that the same year saw the Davina McCall fitness collection launch and a move to a new 60,000 sqft office and warehouse space in Yorkshire. Exercise.co.uk was also launched, a new website designed to provide customers with high-quality, affordable equipment, along with a way to educate and guide customers through their fitness journey.

The global Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 massively impacted the fitness industry. Everyone was forced to stay at home, which meant they were also forced to work out from home. The fitness market skyrocketed, with most of the UK now in need of equipment for the home. PureTec Ltd, like all retailers, sold out of stock in a matter of days. As we worked tirelessly to bring in new stock, we also kept our websites up to date with ways to help those who needed it most.

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2021 saw the fitness industry returning from the Covid-19 pandemic bigger and stronger than ever. After 75 years, Puretec Ltd remains true to Walter Marcyan’s fundamental beliefs of empowering and educating people to stay fit and healthy and to #RaiseTheBar. Puretec Ltd continues to provide 5-Star service and affordable, reliable products to customers throughout the UK. We reached an amazing milestone of over 500 articles in our Learn area on Exercise.co.uk and announced our new Brand Ambassador, Olympian Roger Black MBE. The next few years brought the promise of new things, with the arrival of the Inspire collection and a new partnership with retailer JD Williams.

It’s 2024, and things are getting bigger and better than ever. In June, we marked the 1 year anniversary of our sleek, new Exercise website, along with 5 new shopping categories. Now we sell not only Home Fitness equipment, but anything and everything you need to Find Your Feel Good, from racket sports to team sports, outdoor equipment to garden games.

June also saw the exciting announcement of Exercise being named as the new Stadium Sponsors in a multi-year deal with Harrogate Town, promising the opportunity to increase the exposure of Harrogate Town and Exercise to a wider audience across the country.

With our brands now selling through major retailers such as Decathlon, The Range, Jacamo and Sweatband, PureTec Ltd continues to grow and expand, with many more new and exciting things on the way…

Our
Story

1946 - 1950

1950 - 1960

1961 - 1975

1976 - 1990

1991 - 2002

2003 - 2005

2006 - 2018

2019 - 2020

2021 - 2022

Today