Elethea Studios: How Holly Puddephatt built a reformer Pilates empire in Leeds and beyond

Since opening the doors of her original studio in Seacroft last August, Puddephatt has navigated the highs and lows of startup life with determination and drive. A sudden rebrand and the addition of two more locations – in York and now Wakefield – have turned what could have been stumbling blocks into stepping stones.

After a career managing dozens of sites in the financial sector, Holly made the leap into fitness in 2024, realising her ambition of starting her own studio.

“I was managing 50 sites before, so three studios feels like nothing to me,” she says, speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post between classes.

She adds: “But that was different, that wasn’t my business. I am a startup, so everything starts and stops with me. I do everything from admin to cleaning to social media.

“I’m not saying I’m perfect, but my background has put me in a strong position.”

Since launching, Elethea Studios has been at the forefront of a growing movement. Reformer Pilates – once niche – is rapidly gaining traction in Leeds and across the region. When Puddephatt opened her first site, there was just one other studio offering the workout in the city. Now, there are nine more.

“Leeds has been slower to catch up,” she explains. “If you look at London and the south, there’s been a lot more concentration of studios for longer.”

With competition increasing, Holly believes her hands-on approach is what keeps clients coming back.

“Many new studios are opened by people who aren’t even instructors – just entrepreneurs seeing a business opportunity,” she says. “I still teach about 15 classes a week. It doesn’t sound like loads, but it takes half an hour to come up with each class.

“Here, the clients know me. I know their kids’ names. I know everything about them, and they love that relationship.”

It’s that personal connection which inspired the next step: opening in Wakefield. With customers already making the journey to Seacroft, it became clear there was demand for a local site.

“We’ve had a lot of people from Wakefield coming here, and a lot of them have asked us to open a studio closer to home,” Holly explains. “We realised that our reputation already reaches Wakefield – it’s close enough that word of mouth travels, and people know about us.

“I can pretty much cover the new site with our instructors from here, which helps me retain the quality of our offering.”

Love Leeds? Us too! You’ll love our daily newsletter. It’s full of the latest news, sport, lifestyle, what’s on, and so much more.

The Wakefield location is joined by an expansion at the Seacroft site, where Elethea will soon occupy a newly developed first floor offering hot yoga and Pilates.

But the journey hasn’t been without setbacks. While on holiday, Holly received a cease-and-desist notice that forced her to abandon her original brand name, Eleven Eleven Studios.

“It was an oversight on my part, which I totally owned,” she says. “But it’s not a nice thing to have to do.

“We had a deadline at the end of May to [rebrand]. It was a lot of work, rebranding our studios, rebuilding our app – everything had to be changed.”

Despite the disruption, clients remained loyal – and supportive.

“There was such an outpouring of support when we announced [the name change] from our clients. I think they had sympathy for the whole situation,” Holly says.

“But now it feels like it’s never been anything different. I think the clients just, you know, they don’t come here for the name, and I know they don’t.

“Although it was a learning curve, it hasn’t changed anything. If anything, it’s just been so nice to see how loyally committed our clients are to us, no matter what the name is.”

With three locations and more on the horizon, Elethea Studios shows no sign of slowing down.

“We’re intentionally opening more sites,” she says. “We’re ambitious for the brand.

“We’re not just a money-making thing. We’re changing people’s lives. When you get feedback saying ‘I feel healthier than ever, and my mental health has never been better’ – that drives me.”