Kate Comer is a single mother with two children, so she is used to living on a financial knife-edge. But when the yoga studio at which she taught closed without warning in September, leaving her with two months’ worth of unpaid wages, it sent her anxiety skyrocketing.
“I’m just reeling right now,” she said, estimating her loss at about £1,500. “I’m very concerned about the future.”
Comer is one of an estimated 100 yoga teachers who were not paid for their final weeks of teaching before Triyoga, the cult London yoga studio, shut. Several instructors of barre, spin and box-fit classes who taught at its sister brands Barrecore, Boom Cycle, Kobox and Reformcore, which have also closed, have also said they have been left out of pocket.
Yoga teachers who spoke to the Guardian said they felt blindsided by the sudden collapse, and are now struggling to pay essential bills. At least one says they are facing homelessness.
“It’s absolutely disgraceful and there’s nothing we can do about it as freelancers,” said Comer, who is currently going through a divorce and fears that her sudden loss of income will mean she is considered unable to keep the family flat. She is searching for other work, but “the market is saturated with hundreds of teachers”.
The five fitness brands are all owned by Common Bond, which announced on 24 September that it was “temporarily suspending trading”.
In August, bailiffs attended Triyoga’s Shoreditch studio. Shortly afterwards, Triyoga failed to pay its teachers on time, prompting instructors to threaten industrial action. Some teachers were paid late on 21 August, but none received their scheduled pay on 14 September, teachers said.
Like many fitness studios, Triyoga struggled during Covid, closing its Soho studio in April 2022 after 17 years. The brand was bought by United Fitness Brands (UFB) in January 2022. Following the liquidation of UFB in 2025, its assets were acquired by a new company, Common Bond, run by a former UFB director, Robert Rowland, and backed by the same investment firm, Nectar Capital.
Rowland quit as director in May 2026. It is understood that at this point, the scale of Common Bond’s debts to HMRC emerged. A winding-up petition was subsequently filed on 18 September. Rowland, whose LinkedIn profile describes him as a “C-suite executive” and is now chief of staff at wellness company Until, is also director of the Brown Dog pub in Barnes, which filed a winding-up petition to HMRC on 18 October 2025.
It is understood that Nectar Capital has launched an investigation into Rowland’s management of the business.
Instructors from studios affected, and others close to Common Bond, have questioned whether its collapse is an example of “phoenixing”, in which directors close down a company to eliminate debts, and subsequently establish a new company to continue the same business. Phoenixing is legal unless there is evidence of deliberate abuse.
Common Bond is currently undergoing an insolvency process in order to repay HMRC. It is understood that the fitness brands are for sale.
Yoga teachers said cost-cutting measures had changed the atmosphere at Triyoga, which first opened in Primrose Hill in 2000. They said they were told to use AI-generated music instead of Spotify to avoid the cost of music licensing. Eco-friendly products were replaced with cheaper versions.
Robin Catto, who has taught at Triyoga for 26 years, said the studio – which was popularised by celebrity clientele such as Kate Moss and Jude Law – was “groundbreaking” at the time for offering a mix of styles, and beloved for its “very strong sense of community”.
Though UFB initially “saved” Triyoga, he said, “what became apparent quite quickly is that they didn’t really either get or care about the deeper element of yoga … it began to hollow out the vibe.”
Davy Jones, chair of the Yoga Teachers’ Union, said it was now unlikely that any teachers would be paid. “I think it’s a wake-up call for yoga teachers to realise that they are actually part of that same gig economy [as Uber and Deliveroo drivers],” he said, adding that the union is bringing a test case in a bid to secure yoga teachers the same workers’ rights that Uber drivers are now entitled to.
He said that although “the yoga community tends to be a sort of trusting and, and – perhaps in business terms – slightly naive”, with profit-seeking multinational chains, private equity and hedge funds moving into the fitness industry, “they have to get organised in the same sort of way.”
Students have also been impacted by the chains’ collapse. Ciara Regan paid for a year-long membership, at a cost of £180 per month, which she splurged on for its mental health benefits.
She first felt that things were going downhill when classes were cancelled at the last minute, then she noticed that all the websites and social media accounts suddenly disappeared. “Everybody’s been left in the dark,” she said. “I wish there had been some sort of communication, but it’s careless.”
Other studios in London including Home and Mission, which are run by former Triyoga staff, have offered to allow former Triyoga students to spend unused credits at their studios. Jonathan Sattin, the former founder of Triyoga who now runs Home, noted that studios are “challenging to run” due to the high business rates and VAT that they pay, which he would like to see reduced.
With new gyms continually opening up on high streets across the country, the fitness industry has grown increasingly competitive. David Minton, an industry expert at Evolve, said boutique gyms which offer just one style – except the highly popular reformer pilates – “have seen a slowdown” compared with those that are expanding to include strength training, and sauna and cold plunge facilities.
Nectar Capital declined to comment. Rowland has been approached for comment.
