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. 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. 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.
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