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Chain’s growth plan
Providing cheap, no frills gym opportunities has been the strategy of The Gym Group since it set up for business in 2008. It is looking to open new facilities in Bristol, Leeds and Southampton before the summer and hopes to acquire 20 further sites this year. The chain has
secured additional funding of £20m to continue with its ambitious growth plan. According to
the World Cancer Research Fund, 30 per cent of Britons avoid health clubs because of the fi nancial outlay. With no minimum contract or
punishing tie-ins and open 24 hours a day, The Gym Group’s facilities can be accessed for £15.99 per month, within NHS budgets for doctors who need to prescribe exercise to their patients.
Global experience
Precor says it has had an exciting
start to 2011, with the launch of its Experience Series CV equipment. T e new equipment was offi cially launched in the States in March, and made its European debut in Germany at FIBO 2011. T e company says the
new series marks the culmination of a major three-and-a-half year research and development project. In late 2007, Precor established a Seattle-based research laboratory, where a broad range of exercisers were both analysed and consulted on exactly what they desired from their workout experience. T e research and
development project has resulted in the development of the new Experience Series, which consists of three consoles – the P80, P30 and P20.
Touch of a button... Precor sees networked fi tness as an exciting development
All three consoles
off er new aesthetics and functionality but the P80 is the most radical advancement from Precor’s existing console off erings. It features a robust,
commercial grade capacitive touch screen – similar to screens used for other high-use commercial purposes,
including bank ATMs and airport check-in terminals. T e console also
promotes new workout programmes to users when they fi rst engage with the equipment, acting as a motivational tool to get them trying new challenges. T e console will also allow users to connect
with the internet, which Brent Brooks, vice president of networked fi tness at Precor, sees as an important development. ‘T e internet now
shapes so many aspects of our daily lives, and so understandably the whole industry is excited by the prospect of networked fi tness,’ he said.
PROMOTION HOPEFULS NEED TO DO BETTER
A survey of 19,000 participants has revealed some worrying fi gures for the health and fi tness industry. Leisure-net Solutions and The
Retention People joined forces to deliver the Net Promoter Score (NPS) Survey of the UK health and fi tness sector, which measures customer satisfaction with a facility. The NPS Survey results were
obtained by asking a single question on a 0 to 10 rating scale: ‘How likely is it that you would recommend our
42« May 2011 Sportphysical activity &
17 per cent detractors. This is poor compared to other service sector industries, such as hospitality, hotels, retail and airlines. Private, multi-site operators
company to a friend or colleague?’ The results show that the industry
sits at just 21 per cent, a fi gure made up of 38 per cent promoters and
have most improvement to make as they scored a poor minus 16 per cent. Local authority sites scored highest with 28 per cent and Trust- run facilities scored 12 per cent. A total of 159 sites participated in the survey, and active and regular customers were surveyed via email.
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