interview
The CEO of the Country Club
Group talks to Kate Cracknell
about combining golf and fitness,
creating wonderful places to be,
and balancing success with a
desire not to grow too large
charlie parker
“Y
ou can’t just stick a inception. “I was employee number the transformation of two of those clubs
couple of pieces of kit in one – I joined a company which ended from straightforward golf facilities into a
a 12 x 12 room and say up as Clubhaus, which then ended up as full-blown country club experience,” says
it’s a country club,” says The Club Company – and went through Parker. The remaining three clubs will also
Charlie Parker, CEO of the Country various things, from public fl oatation to be refurbished over the next few years.
Club Group (CCG). “It’s actually very privatisation to outright sale.” He left in “We’re spending just under £8m
difficult to make it work.” 2005 – “to work in the family business, across the two sites, with one opening
Parker, former CEO of The Club plus a few other bits and pieces” – but at the beginning of June and the other
Company, is talking about CCG’s latest was lured back to the sector in 2007, at the beginning of July this year. We’re
project: adding premium health and when he joined CCG. confi dent that, when members see the
fi tness facilities to its golf clubs. It’s a “At The Club Company, we’d new clubs, it will knock their socks off,
strategy with which he is familiar, having developed a hugely successful model with top spec health and fi tness facilities
fi rst tested the waters of a combined golf and had already moved the concept on and an upgrade of all the golfi ng elements.
and fi tness offering at The Club Company a bit – mostly from a design aspect – in “The brand new gyms will be equipped
– or Clubhaus as it was then known. the second round of developments. But with the latest Matrix CV and strength
“It was a concept we invented really. when I started talking to Peter Blacker, equipment, as well as Power Plates.
Even well-located golf courses tend to the main shareholder at CCG, I felt They’ll have around 45–50 stations and
struggle fi nancially, but we worked out excited about the idea of taking it on about a 2,000-member capacity.
that, if we could somehow broaden the a stage further, of being able to start “Each will have three studios: holistic,
range of facilities on offer and make it less afresh without any of the limitations aerobic and group cycling, with
one-dimensional, it would drive usage. of working within an existing company CYCLEwell bikes that are designed
“Our clubs were brilliantly located and with existing ways of doing things. to cater for a more mature audience.
looked lovely – beautifully manicured “It was partly a case of unfi nished Our membership profi le is much older
golf courses, lots of trees and grass. business and partly the fact that I’ve just than the average health club; we don’t
They were natural places for people to done it for so long; there’s a big bank of have many 20-year-olds pumping iron,
hang out. So that was the concept. We experience. I wanted to try and move it but we do have lots of 40- to 70-year-
invented a country club model – different forward again. That’s what really excited olds, and they need a slightly different
from any existing businesses, which me and what continues to excite me.” emphasis on fi tness.
tended to be built around hotels or “Our membership also includes lots
conferences – and it worked really well.” premium fitness of families with young children, so we’ll
Parker, who had previously worked Privately-owned CCG has five golf clubs have a kids’ offering too. And there’ll be
as an accountant for Deloitte, and for in the south of England. It is funded by its treatment rooms – three at one club,
P&O in Australia, joined what was to shareholders and supported by Barclays four at the other – offering a full range
become The Club Company at its very Bank. “We’re more than halfway through of spa treatments.
34 Read Health Club Management online may 2009 © cybertrek 2009
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
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