AN international fitness chain has announced it could bring up to 150 jobs to the North-East.

Curves for Women, which started in the US and has built up more than 2,500 fitness clubs in less than seven years, is creating at least 30 clubs in the region, and up to 150 jobs.

The chain, which uses innovative machines instead of regular gym equipment to make workouts faster with similar results, has already chosen sites in Bishop Auckland and Peterlee, in County Durham, and Ashington, in Northumberland.

The company is a subsidiary of the American organisation, which is the fastest growing fitness chain in the US, Canada and Mexico.

A ladies-only gym, in Newgate Street, Bishop Auckland, opens on Monday, with dozens of women booked in to try out the equipment.

Curves will open in Peterlee on December 2 - the second of 30 clubs the chain says it will open during the next two years.

Sales director Lawrence Lewis said: "Curves was devised by a couple in the US who realised that women do not have time for an hour-and-a-half workout, three times a week.

"Instead, they get the same results using our machines in just half an hour.

"The chain is one of the fastest-growing business franchises in the world - it is growing even faster than MacDonalds did."