interview “For most Star members, it’s the most
exciting thing they’ve done for a very long time. So what do you think they talk about to their other Star friends? Savvy people don’t even mention it – joining a new club is like moving to another town and fi nding the next supermarket. But for Star people it’s a huge deal, and being able to bring a guest for free is very appealing. They want to share it with their friends. We’re getting 100, even 150 guests a day at each club. That’s a challenge in itself, but it’s also our new business feed – we don’t have to market aggressively.” However, in spite of the low fees, the
quality of the offering is high, with top- end equipment. It’s also packaged in an appealing way. “I believe you have to sell the sizzle, not the steak,” says de Leede.
“When you go to a restaurant, you take in the sights and sounds and smells and make a decision about eating there before you actually taste the food. They have to sell the sizzle. Similarly, if you’re selling a club, you should put TVs up, put lights up, make it look attractive and then sell the sizzle. “Exercise is medicine, and you have to
make the medicine taste better. If we want to get people into clubs, we have to wrap it up in something that makes it more palatable. So even in our budget clubs, although it’s not over the top
– it has to be comfortable for our Star members – we have a lot of sizzle, a lot of vibe and energy.” So is Fit n Fast better, as well as
cheaper and faster? “When you’re cheaper and faster, often by default you’re better. However, although
‘cheaper and faster’ is pretty black and white, ‘better’ is a subjective term. We’re not better in the traditional sense of the word, namely offering more stuff – we don’t have pools or saunas, for example – but our clients would say we’re better because this is the fi rst time they’re not intimidated. So yes, I feel we’ve addressed all three.”
ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT De Leede certainly puts his money where his mouth is. “I’ve invested a substantial amount of money and I’m personally guaranteeing every lease. In addition to myself and five other partners who have put in about two- thirds of the money, there are another 26
High quality, low cost: In spite of being a budget operation, Fit n Fast sites are equipped with top-end equipment
growing rapidly to encompass retail stores among a portfolio of properties owned by de Leede. Aged 27, he decided to travel for
a year, but only got as far as the US before another business idea came to him – this time in health and fi tness.
people who have put in anything from A$25,000 up to A$200,000, because they believe in the concept. We’re fully funded for the first 15 clubs.” Having opened the fi rst site in June of
last year, Fit n Fast is now up to six clubs. De Leede’s objective is to grow the chain to 15 clubs by the end of 2011, and “easily 200 clubs” across Australia within 10 to 15 years. Meanwhile David Patchell-Evans – CEO of GoodLife Fitness, Canada’s largest health club chain, and a strategic investor in the Fit n Fast business – is looking to introduce the ‘fast’ format into his own Fit for Less budget clubs. De Leede has also been approached
by a number of parties to expand into territories including Russia and the US, but as he explains: “I won’t say defi nitely no, but at this point in my life, I don’t have any desire to take on the world.” Hardly surprising, though, that people
are watching his every move – de Leede’s CV speaks for itself in terms of experience, entrepreneurial spirit and gut instinct proved right. Leaving school at 15, by the age of 18 he had already set up his fi rst business with his mother – importing clothes and jewellery from Bali and the Philippines – which did “extremely well”,
“EXERCISE IS MEDICINE, AND YOU HAVE TO MAKE THE MEDICINE TASTE BETTER... WE HAVE TO MAKE IT MORE PALATABLE”
28 Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
“My friend and I used to work out at a huge club in Sydney, with group exercise classes for maybe 100 people. We didn’t think the US had anything as good as that, so we decided to open our own club. It was a huge facility in Atlanta targeting women only, which we called Australian Body Works. “We thought, if we built a magnifi cent
facility, they would come – but they didn’t come. My partner went back to Australia and I got a hard lesson: you have to go out and market yourself. So we did a promotion to fi nd Atlanta’s
‘most physical woman’, with an aerobics competition in conjunction with Olivia Newton-John. It was hugely successful and I built a second, much smaller club – not as glitzy and glamorous, but it really took off. And over the next 20 years, I built the portfolio up to 23 clubs – plus three in the pipeline – which I sold to LA Fitness in the US in 2000.” Among many other entries on his CV,
de Leede also owned CardioTheater and was responsible for creating the fi rst ever Olympic Village health club, in Atlanta. And then came the call, in 2000, from
Mike Balfour, who was in Australia to acquire the bankrupt Healthland club chain for Fitness First. Having fl own over to help with the acquisition, de Leede was then asked by Balfour to become CEO of Fitness First Australia. “I hadn’t worked for someone for well over 30 years, and I told him the only way I’d even be remotely interested was if I
march 2011 © cybertrek 2011
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