BANNATYNE Fitness has announced plans to open a call centre and bring the recently acquired Sensory Spa brand to its home town.

The health club chain, owned by North-East millionaire Duncan Bannatyne, chose Darlington over Milton Keynes as the location for its contact centre.

The facility, which will initially employ six staff at Bannatyne's headquarters, in Haughton Road, will manage bookings and inquiries for its Sensory's gift experience day packages.

It will also handle direct inquiries from customers and health club members for spa treatments on behalf of Bannatyne's network of 35 Sensory Spas across the UK.

Last year, Bannatyne Fitness acquired the Sensory Spa brand as part of the £90m acquisition of 24 LivingWell Premier Health Clubs from Hilton International.

Included in the deal was LivingWell's headquarters in Milton Keynes, which was a potential site for the call centre.

Bannatyne's has become gift experience company Activity Superstore's exclusive provider of Gift Experience Days, including pamper days and beauty packages, and the voucher business is worth more than £750,000 a year.

The chain has unveiled plans to build a new Sensory Spa at its health club in Darlington and has submitted plans to the borough council.

The investment would lead to the creation of up to ten jobs and potentially provide employment to qualified beauty students from nearby Darlington College.

Nigel Armstrong, the managing director of Bannatyne Fitness, said: "Our growth and expansion continues to create jobs in Darlington.

"Last year, Duncan Bannatyne completed one of his most successful deals buying 24 LivingWell health clubs. This deal is now leading to new jobs and new opportunities at our head office.

"The Bannatyne group decided to locate in Darlington several years ago, and has plans for further expansion in the town.

"We have already submitted an application to build a Sensory Spa adjacent to our flagship health club in the town.

"If our application is accepted, the call centre staff at head office will also be servicing general inquiries and hopefully servicing our local members and customers.