Triyoga's collapse leaves about 100 freelance teachers unpaid for their final weeks

"It's absolutely disgraceful and there's nothing we can do about it as freelancers," said Kate Comer, a single mother who taught at Triyoga ^[2]. She puts her loss at about 1,500 pounds for two months of unpaid teaching ^[1], or roughly 750 pounds a month ^[22]. Hers is one account among an estimated 100 ^[3], and the reporting does not include a total owed across the five brands. The chair of the Yoga Teachers' Union, Davy Jones, said the odds of any teacher getting paid were now slim ^[18]. According to the Guardian, Common Bond's insolvency process is aimed at repaying HMRC ^[16].

The warning signs came about a month before the closure, though teachers said the collapse itself blindsided them ^[21]. They describe cost-cutting first: AI-generated music in place of Spotify to avoid licensing fees, and cheaper substitutes for eco-friendly products ^[17]. In August bailiffs attended the Shoreditch studio, and Triyoga then failed to pay teachers on time, prompting threats of industrial action ^[8]. Some were paid late on 21 August. None received their scheduled pay on 14 September, teachers said ^[9], 24 days after the late payment ^[24]. A winding-up petition was filed four days after that missed payday ^[13], and Common Bond announced it was "temporarily suspending trading" ten days after it ^[23][7].

Instructors' suspicion centres on the ownership chain. United Fitness Brands bought Triyoga in January 2022 ^[10]. After UFB was liquidated in 2025, its assets went to Common Bond, run by former UFB director Robert Rowland and backed by the same investor, Nectar Capital ^[11]. That makes Common Bond the second Nectar-backed owner of Triyoga to enter insolvency ^[25]. Instructors and others close to the company have asked whether this is "phoenixing", in which directors close a company to shed its debts and carry on the business through a new one ^[14]. A skeptic of that reading can point to the same reporting. Phoenixing is legal unless there is evidence of deliberate abuse ^[15], and Rowland, who quit as director in May 2026, told the Guardian his resignation was planned from the start of his tenure ^[12]. Whether anything improper happened is not yet known; Nectar Capital is understood to have opened an investigation into Rowland's management ^[27].

The five brands are understood to be for sale ^[26]. Whoever buys them takes on studios whose teachers worked their last weeks unpaid ^[3] and have little bargaining power. At least one teacher says they face homelessness ^[5]. Comer, who is looking for other work, said "the market is saturated with hundreds of teachers" ^[6].

The longer consequence runs through the union. Jones compared yoga teachers to Uber and Deliveroo drivers. "I think it's a wake-up call for yoga teachers to realise that they are actually part of that same gig economy," he said ^[19]. The union is bringing a test case to win yoga teachers the workers' rights Uber drivers are now entitled to ^[20]. A buyer this quarter will price these brands on a freelance cost base. If the test case succeeds, the same roster would carry worker-rights obligations that a price set now may not reflect.