The varied exercise classes are an integral part of The Third Space off er


weren’t focusing on being fun, inter- esting or value for money. There were a lot of facilities, but not many clubs. Many were chains with what I would call ‘names’ rather than real brands. “We felt there was a real opening for a niche player and decided to introduce a high quality product, with high qual- ity employees, pricing it to achieve a return but also offering value for money. “We wanted to make it full of fun,


energy, enthusiasm, excitement, col- our, vibrancy, variety. To have different classes at different times every single day and in every single space through- out the club. To constantly push the boundaries and build a club atmos- phere rather than just being a facility. “The concept of The Third Space is


fi rst space home, second space work, third space ‘your space’ – doing what you want to do, how you want to do it, when you want to do it, with whom you want to do it. Everyone’s an individual and the key is to treat them as such.” He continues: “We charge £1,240 a year and don’t discount, and roughly 60 per cent of our customers choose to pay annually in advance. That means we have a very solid business, allowing us to invest in our product and our employees.”


ISSUE 1 2011 © cybertrek 2011 INVESTING IN PEOPLE


People are clearly a key focus for Dunmore. “We work as hard as pos- sible to get and retain the best employees. People want to work for us because we pay well and we look after them. We have training programmes for everybody – if the fi tness team hits its targets, everyone gets £150 a month to do whatever training they want – and we do what we say we’re going to do. It’s as simple as that. If you behave like that with people, you get more out of them. “As a result of our employees, we have what I believe are the best reten- tion rates in the industry. Our year ended on 30 September 2010 and we retained 85 per cent of our annual members. If you include everyone on monthly direct debits, our retention is just over 70 per cent. That’s ignoring all new sales – simply looking at the people we had at the beginning of the year and seeing how many of them we still have as members.” It’s clearly a strong business model that’s bolstered further by revenue streams such as pilates and personal training. “Our pilates studio – which is also open to non-members – offers one-to-one classes and we’ve found


it to be a big driver of growth,” says Dunmore. “A couple of years ago we took about £68,000 on pilates and last year we took in excess of £256,000. “Personal training accounts for about 25 per cent of our turnover. That’s grown hugely in the last few years and I think we can take it much further. “I think the growth opportunity is in showcasing what personal train- ing can achieve for people. However, ours is a retail business – you can’t force people to buy something by mak- ing it the only option, so everyone has programme design included in their membership, plus all our PTs are on the fl oor to answer questions. We only employ PTs, who also act as gym fl oor instructors, and they all have a sport science degree or equivalent, and at least three years’ experience.”


MEDICAL OFFERING


The club also has a medical centre as part of its offering, covering a wide range of services including acupunc- ture, reiki, shiatsu, podiatry, chiropody, physiotherapy, osteopathy, colonics, nutrition, counselling and massage. “Running a medical centre is the most


diffi cult thing we do,” says Dunmore. “It has to be a separate legal entity


Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital 51


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