When Phil and Jen Whitlock purchased Le Sport Health & Fitness in Rhos on Sea, North Wales in July 1996, they turned to paygate just days later and they haven’t looked back since.
Now marking 30 years as paygate customers and 355 consecutive monthly Direct Debit submissions, their story is a testament to what a trusted, reliable payments partnership really looks like. With their children now working alongside them, and a 95-year-old member still training on site, this is a business, and a relationship, built to last.
As a paygate customer
Consecutive monthly Direct
Debit submissions
Loyal members
Age of their longest-standing member
On 9 July 1996, Phil and Jen Whitlock became the proud owners of Le Sport Health & Fitness, a squash court facility in Rhos on Sea, North Wales.
Within days, driven by equal parts excitement and the very real pressure of needing to get cash flowing into the business, they made another important decision: to partner with paygate for their Direct Debit collections. They signed on 14 July 1996, just six days after taking the keys.
Phil and Jen were new to running a business, and the priority was clear: get the payments infrastructure right from the start. paygate’s software was installed in August 1996, and after Phil received his training in September, the business made its very first Direct Debit collection on 30 September 1996. That date marks the beginning of an unbroken monthly rhythm that has continued ever since.
Since that first collection in September 1996, Phil and Jen’s business has submitted a Direct Debit collection every single month without exception. As of today, that stands at 355 consecutive submissions and they are on track to reach their 360th by September 2026.
What makes this particularly remarkable is how it has been done. Phil has personally overseen every submission for 30 years, using the very same notes and processes from the original on-site setup in 1996. Even the desktop shortcut Mike created for them is still in use today.
There’s a personal footnote to that first submission: Jen and Phil’s son Adam was born the very same week. Adam now works in the business alongside his sister Emily, carrying the family’s commitment forward into the next generation.
The business Phil and Jen took on in 1996 looked very different to what it is today. What began as Le Sport Health & Fitness — a squash court facility in Rhos on Sea — has been steadily and thoughtfully transformed over three decades into an exceptional strength and conditioning gym.
Today, the site is home to a physio studio, group exercise classes, and personal training services, all underpinned by a loyal membership base of over 1,500 members. The community spans generations, from members in their late teens to a 95-year-old who has been training there for the full 30 years and was still on the gym floor on the day of our visit.
Adam and Emily, Phil and Jen’s children — now in their late twenties and thirties — have both joined the business, carrying the family’s commitment to the membership community into the next generation.
Over 30 years, Phil and Jen have had every reason to evaluate their suppliers and make changes where needed. When it came to paygate, the answer
was always the same: they stayed.
When a pricing issue arose in 2019, one call to their Account Manager resolved it. The combination of consistent reliability and a genuinely responsive customer service team meant switching was never a serious consideration.
They spoke particularly warmly of Toni, a trusted and long-standing point of contact, as well as the broader Customer Support team’s approach: easy to reach, genuinely helpful, and never making them feel like anything was too much trouble.
When our COO and product manager visited Phil and Jen recently — making the journey to Rhos on Sea, North Wales to mark the occasion — they were genuinely moved by the gesture, saying they “couldn’t believe we’d made such an effort.”
The visit was a chance not only to celebrate 30 years together, but to look at what comes next. The business has continued to evolve and so have the requirements around payment processing. Phil and Jen are ready to make the move to AUDDIS, the Automated Direct Debit Instruction Service, and paygate will be on hand to guide them through that process alongside their bank.
After 30 years and 355 submissions, the next chapter is very much in progress.
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