HCM PEOPLE
How will you balance being an operator in your own right with being a contract operator. Do you see any conflicts of interest? While the majority of our You Fit portfolio represents owned properties, we’ve held management contracts within our existing estate for many years. To the leadership teams, there is no discernible difference in the way in which we operate, manage and focus on delivering commercial performance when compared to that of our owned clubs. Managed and franchised You Fit clubs benefit from being supported in much the same way as our owned estate, including operational elements of our culture, centralised marketing and member retention, administration and collections functions. Each also has a dedicated account manager and performance coach. What’s the business model? We have many bespoke management options and will work with each client to come up with the best solution to meet their needs and requirements. Each management contract client will benefit from a service including an external bi-annual health and safety audit, sales and marketing support, professional fees and licencing and a central admin support team. Will you work with investors? Initially, our franchise offering will be aimed predominantly at independent club operators who are in need of recovery support and would benefit most from operating with a branded solution. 20
Issue 4 2021 ©Cybertrek 2021
You Fit is branching out from only running its own facilities and launching into contracting
What are your points of differentiation with existing contract operators? Branded and franchise businesses repeatedly outperform independent businesses. We see this across restaurants, fast-food, pubs, hotels, retail and fitness. While hotel guests are typically travelling from outside the area, hotel health club and spa members are local residents. To this end, hotel-based clubs are competing with a multitude of well-known national brands. We feel that there’s a clear opportunity for a strong national brand to compete and emerge in hotels. For owners and operators, partnering delivers a clear brand identity with expansive demographic appeal, giving employees and members a sense of belonging and trust, while offering owners confidence in a proven model and commercial systems. For small independent club operators it’s an affordable opportunity to join a larger brand and gain from operational and commercial systems. What do you see coming down the track? The last big shake up in the health, fitness and wellness industry came after the recession of 2008/9, which led to the emergence of budget gyms. This led to long standing, well-known mid-market club brands disappearing from our high streets, but it also made health club memberships more broadly attainable and delivered year-on-year growth for the sector. We’ve seen new fitness trends emerge over the past year which will bring with them further longer term changes that will continue to provide variety, points of differentiation and opportunities for our industry.
PHOTO: KEW GREEN HOTELGROUP
We feel there’s a clear opportunity for a national health, fitness and wellness brand to compete and emerge in hotels