by Georgie Delaney, co-founder of TGO

Welcome to TGO in the twenties – we’re springing into the new decade, as passionate as ever about the transformative power of outdoor activity for our physical and mental health. We’re devoted to preserving our beautiful planet too – designing, manufacturing and installing the most environmentally-friendly outdoor gyms that recycle precious materials, generate electricity and serve their communities for many years. We’re also really proud to plant trees and new woodland in the NHS Forest.

From our first outdoor gyms in English and Scottish parks in 2007, we have grown to over 1500 installations worldwide – from London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to Bondi Beach in Australia, the Bethlem Royal Hospital (SLaM) to Sodnac wellness park in Mauritius, Singaporean shores to Dubai beachfronts to the grounds of St Thomas's Hospital opposite the Houses of Parliament. We've even installed on the site an earthquake in Muccia, Italy, a TGO gym funded by Andrea Bocelli who sang at the launch in June 2019. We’re honoured to play our part in improving public health, breaking down barriers to physical activity, boosting mental health and wellbeing, regenerating community spaces and promoting sustainable living.

We’re grateful too for everything we’ve learned from our corporate relationships – including partnerships with adidas, Right Guard and Rolls Royce. Brands like these require innovative edge and excellence as standard – their expectations have helped us to dive into fresh waters and keep swimming for new shores.

And with bespoke installations for the Department for Education, the United Nations and many hundreds of local authorities, schools, universities, hospitals and workplaces, we believe in helping all TGO customers to provide exceptional value to the people they serve. It’s the only way to build trusting relationships and we’re really proud to have delivered borough-wide, citywide and even nationwide outdoor fitness schemes.

The key for TGO has been to innovate for the most sustainable future. To this end, we offer TGO customers stronger, safer and greener outdoor fitness equipment and packages – including our Made in Britain range. We invented TGO Energy gyms, which harness human kinetic energy, capturing and recycling it to charge devices and power lighting. Our latest innovations take our gyms to another level. We have developed TGO Smart Gyms and the TGO Activate App to turn your park into a force for good, driving up physical activity, wellbeing and community spirit. Using these tools, we can now provide TGO gym owners with insights into their user demographics and usage patterns, as well as a means to generate revenue to reinvest in their park or location. Additionally, TGO gym users can use our App to find their local TGO gym, take part in classes, then log, track and share their workouts. We’ve also launched our TGO Activator training and Big Community Workouts, to empower local people to deliver family-friendly sessions, inspiring even the most inactive groups. And 2020 sees a really exciting new phase of inclusive activation - our classes and programmes for inactive people, elites, families, people with pre-existing health conditions and older people.

We trade multi-nationally too through our network of international sales partners in Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, UAE and more. The Department of International Trade (DiT) named TGO as one of their Export Champions. Recently, we have been selected for its intensive trade support programme – only 10 companies receive this input from the DiT, organisations they believe have the biggest potential for growth.

From our work in the UK and across the world, we’re really encouraged that we are on the right track – globally, communities need activating in sustainable ways that preserve our planet. World Health Organisation data shows that 1 in 4 adults don’t do 30 minutes of exercise per week and this leads to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and mental health illnesses. There are immense demands on stretched health services to treat these preventable diseases, as well as a hefty carbon footprint. It’s no wonder that doctors, academics and chief medical officers talk about physical activity as a wonder drug. The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that we must all take steps to boost our immunity with regular physical activity in the great outdoors, where we can also increase Vitamin D levels to fight off respiratory disease. Physical activity is not only great for our health and wellbeing but it really can take so much pressure off our planet too – let’s move into the twenties together!

Activating people in their local communities is also a subject very close to my heart because my father and co-director, John Tarrant, died from a cardiac arrest in 2019. In his life, he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, heart disease and prostate cancer – but through radical changes to diet and exercise, along side excellent medical care, John transformed his health in later years. He succeeded in coming off his medication for type 2 diabetes. He recovered from prostrate cancer and the ravages of radiotherapy. And he gave his heart a fighting chance too. The lifestyle changes he made certainly extended his years on this Earth for a decade or more – for all that extra time, all John’s family will always be incredibly grateful. Such an inventive entrepreneur, a man who believed in championing the underdog and helping his neighbours, an international lawyer who was as comfortable talking to Princess Anne or David Cameron in his role at TGO, as he was joking with TGO installation crews and his local supermarket checkout staff, John was my great mentor and friend, as well as my dear Dad. I will always miss him.

This is why I’m so proud to say that 2020 brings a TGO gym installation at St Thomas’s Hospital in Westminster, opposite the Houses of Parliament. It’s the hospital where Dad was born in 1947, where I had my son Brandon in 2011 and where my niece, Natalie, was born in 2017. If you visit St Thomas’s Hospital, please take a moment to sit on John’s bench in their Movement is Medicine garden – after your TGO gym workout, of course! You’ll find a dedication to John on the bench – it speaks of his great spirit and zest for life, his never-give-in attitude. I am so proud of my father’s impressive legacy in life – including the great work he did with TGO.

From our humble beginnings in 2007 to where we are today, John always pushed for the highest possible standards for TGO – always with razor-sharp humour, a creative commercial eye and the greatest of heart. Dad, we hope to do you proud in the twenties.

And to all TGO’s customers and partners, thank you for taking the leap with TGO - here’s to the best decade yet!

Georgie

Read more here about TGO’s history and the top 10 reasons to choose TGO gyms.

About the TGO Founders – Georgie Delaney and Matt Delaney

Georgie Delaney

With a first class honours degree in Industrial Design from UCL, Georgie started her career at Sport England as part of the communications team involved in the ‘Everyday Sport’ national fitness campaign. This experience, along with the success of the outdoor gyms at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, fuelled her passion for addressing inactivity using innovation and design in the great outdoors. She founded TGO in 2007, alongside her father and husband, with a focus on equipment that led the way in terms of quality, safety and sustainability. Georgie’s key responsibilities at TGO are Product Development, Innovation, Brand and Activation.

Matt Delaney

With an honours degree in Sports Science, Matt is a former professional basketball player and secondary school teacher. He taught PE in inner city London schools, including Blackheath Bluecoat school where his pupils included the Ferdinand brothers. Matt went on to join Sport England where he first worked as Head of Active Schools for London and then went on to become the London Regional Director, working on the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic bid. Matt is a joint founder of TGO and his key responsibilities are UK sales, international sales and establishing overseas sales channels, as well as the day to day management of the business including sales, production, operations and finance.