WHEN Marnie Swindells had to become the “man of the house” aged eight following the sudden death of her dad, something inside her changed.
The 30-year-old grew up in a static caravan as part of a “very low income family” – a childhood which she says had “no airs or graces to it” but one she believes was pivotal to her success.
She is now the proud owner of Bronx Boxing Club, an inclusive boxing gym that is striving to bring more women into the sport.
Marnie is also business partners with Lord Sugar himself.
“My dad died very suddenly when I was young which left me and my mum in a very bad place,” she tells Fabulous for our exclusive series, Bossing It.
“I felt a huge transitional shift in that moment, where I became the man of the house.
“Even at eight-years-old, I felt like I stepped into his shoes and became very responsible.
“Watching my mum really have to try and figure it out herself, and all the sinking moments that she had, made me want something so different.”
Since the tragic death of her dad, Marnie says life has been a “constant climb” when she’s “always fighting to attain more and do more”.
Marnie, who grew up in Oldham, Manchester, stayed in the caravan until she was 13-years-old and eventually moved to London aged 18 for university.
In the space of 12 years, she has become a homeowner, set up the Bronx Boxing Club in Camberwell, London and beat 17 other entrepreneurs to win £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar.
Marnie first tried her hand at boxing aged 17, a time when women were sparse in the industry and women’s boxing wasn’t even considered a legitimate sport.
Until August 2009, boxing was still the only sport in the Olympic Games in which women were not represented.
It was then that the International Olympic Committee announced it would finally include women’s boxing at the 2012 Games in London.
“Women in boxing was unheard of,” Marnie says.
“When I came to London and walked into the boxing gym, I was looked at very crazily like I didn’t belong there.
The Bronx Boxing Club owner shared her top five nuggets of information for anyone looking to set up a business...
“Overtime I started showing those values of discipline and respect, and showing that I would work as hard as the guys.
“They kind of adopted me after that and the gender thing wasn’t such an issue anymore.
“I was being respected as Marnie, rather than as the only girl in the gym.”
When more women started attending the gym, one of them was a barrister who Marnie struck up a friendship with.
I always found myself feeling more at home with the guys in the gym than in the courtroom
Marnie Swindells
She ended up shadowing her high-flying new pal at work and loved the experience so much that she went to law school.
After years of post-graduate training, Marnie was called to the bar in 2018 and began practising as a lawyer.
But something was missing.
“I kept feeling a gravitational pull back to boxing,” Marnie recalls.
“I always found myself feeling more at home with the guys in the gym than in the courtroom.”
The entrepreneur became “obsessed with the idea of owning a gym” – so much so that she took out a 20-year lease on a decrepit building in 2019.
“It was filled knee high with sewage and there was asbestos in the walls,” Marnie tells.
My gym was filled knee high with sewage and there was asbestos in the walls. I didn’t have a penny to put into it… but there was no possible way I was going to walk away from my dream
Marnie Swindells
“I didn’t have a penny to put into it… but there was no possible way I was going to walk away from my dream.
“I had less than £2,000 in my bank account right there. There was no money coming from me.
“It was such a ludicrous idea.”
She was able to raise £400,000 by way of grants and loans, including from the gym’s local council, to renovate half of the two-floor building.
But when she saw Lord Sugar telling people who have got what it takes to apply for The Apprentice, she decided that’s how she wanted to raise the rest of the money needed to finish the gym.
She beat thousands of applicants and 17 other hopefuls to land the £250,000 investment and, in the process, secured Britain’s most famous businessman as a partner.
In the year to June 2023, Bronx Boxing Ltd (the company the gym trades under) totted up assets worth over £210,000.
Marnie nearly doubled cash in the bank to almost £40,000 between 2022 and 2023, with the gym officially launching in February 2023.
It is set to make a six-figure turnover in its first year of full operation, though Marnie couldn’t confirm an exact figure.
“We haven’t got official turnover numbers yet, because our second floor has only been open for two months,” she explains.
I owe so much of my life to boxing – even the opportunity of becoming a barrister as that never would have happened for me had I not been in that boxing gym at that moment in time
Marnie Swindells
“We only have a year’s worth of understanding of the business from just one room, which was a basement room.
“So, when we get to next February, that’s when we’ll really know our turnover – but the gym is profitable, it’s doing really well.”
Since Bronx Boxing Club’s opening last year, it has welcomed a whopping 500 members.
Memberships start at £60-a-month, which includes multiple boxing sessions, unlimited access to the weights gym and unlimited use of the sauna.
Marnie hopes it will become the go-to gym for boxers of all levels – from amateurs that have never stepped foot in the ring to professionals.
“I think there’s something really innate about boxing,” she says.
“I’d really like to get more people to see what goes on in boxing gyms.
“I owe so much of my life to boxing – even the opportunity of becoming a barrister as that never would have happened for me had I not been in that boxing gym at that moment in time.”
