Alliance Leisure Recognised as a Top 25 Women-Powered UK Business
Alliance Leisure has been named on JP Morgan’s Top 200 UK Women-Powered Businesses, placing at an outstanding 21st on the list.
For half a decade, J.P. Morgan Private Bank has partnered with Beauhurst to celebrate leading women-powered businesses across the UK.
The comprehensive report outlines the advances, achievements and contributions of women entrepreneurs, and the top 200 list acknowledges specific enterprises which have demonstrated outstanding success within their fields.
CEO Sarah Watts founded Alliance Leisure in 1998 to help local authorities secure funding for facility improvements. Having worked for Bristol City Council for five years, she saw how outdated leisure centres were losing relevance and recognised the urgent need for public leisure to evolve.
Her first success came when she secured £1m for Hull City Council after a last-minute funding collapse. This breakthrough launched the company’s trajectory. As access to public funding improved, Sarah pivoted Alliance Leisure toward construction, leveraging her sector insight to design and deliver modern, engaging leisure spaces.
Since then, Sarah and the team have delivered more than 285 facilities across the UK representing more than £465 million in investment, redefining public leisure for future generations.
Some of Sarah’s greatest achievements include developments involving city-wide transformation plans, such as those with Durham and North Yorkshire councils. In Durham, for example, Alliance Leisure has repurposed four facilities and are about to start on site at the first new build, a £27m community hub complete with a library, with the potential for two more to come later. This all forms part of a £100m+ programme that will transform the region, with multiple high-quality facilities for the community.
“I always say we’re a 25-year overnight success story. Everyone keeps telling us we’re everywhere now, but it’s taken 25 years to get that level of traction. I have an amazing team and feel incredibly fortunate to have such dedicated, hard-working individuals as my colleagues. The team inspires me on a daily basis and I am incredibly proud of them all.”