Rosemary Conley: Time for the doyenne of diets to tighten her belt?

On a rainy day in 1971, a plump secretary in Leicestershire stood outside Thurnby Memorial Hall, a grey brick building on the village main street, waiting anxiously for members to turn up to her first keep-fit class. Six neighbours had been coerced into joining a trial session the previous week – featuring not only exercise but fashion and make-up tips. Spurred on by its success, she had spent £8 of her savings on 50 posters, which she stuck on lamp posts all over town.

This week, however, it emerged that all is not well in Conley’s low-fat life. After a “very difficult year” and losses of £850,000, the administrators have been called in to Rosemary Conley Food & Fitness, and its sister company, Quorn House Publishing. Conley blames her decision to start an online TV channel three years ago, as well as plummeting sales of her magazine, which has been suspended. Six staff have been made redundant, with Conley calling the episode a “career low”.

Indeed, tastes have changed during Conley’s four decades in the business, with celebrity regimes and scientifically backed (some spuriously) programmes, such as Atkins, WeightWatchers and the 5:2 diet, nudging out magazines and clubs. But is this the end of an era?

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