middle east market
HEAD FIRST
Fitness First Middle East has grown from 16 to 32 clubs since April 2011, and the business continues to grow rapidly. Kate Cracknell talks to its management team about its recipe for success
reasons. The business – which operates as a franchise in the Middle East (see info panel, p50) – is expanding rapidly, opening new clubs on a monthly basis. It’s also introduced a brand of creative thinking that’s grabbed the attention of the media, with the operator involved in a wide range of highly visible initiatives – everything from sponsorship of local sporting events through to a Michael Jackson Thriller dance flashmob at the base of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa for members and non-members alike. “We’ve made some fundamental shifts
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away from what the UK was doing,” explains COO George Flooks, who joined Fitness First Middle East (FFME) after seven years at Fitness First in the UK. “When Landmark took over the Middle East franchise in late 2010, it wanted Fitness First people to run the business” – indeed, FFME sales and marketing director Mark Botha also spent fi ve years at Fitness First in the UK, prior to stints at Leisure Connection and Premier Training International, before joining FFME. “However, we’ve set up our model quite differently in terms of the member experience and interaction at a club level.”
Flooks and Botha both joined FFME in April 2011, since which time the business has, says Flooks, “implemented signifi cant changes that have led to notable improvements in sales and retention”. He adds: “The key thing we wanted to do was introduce a much higher level of ‘touch’ throughout the member journey, from the moment you enter the club to
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healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital september 2012 © cybertrek 2012
f Fitness First has been getting some negative press in the UK, in the Middle East it has been hitting the headlines for entirely different
the moment you leave. That includes high visibility of our personnel, whether that’s instructors getting members involved in small group training sessions on the gym fl oor or staff carrying out cleaning rotas – cleanliness carries a high premium in this market, and we have people cleaning the clubs visibly and at all times. “Meanwhile, our personal trainers
are employed by FFME, as opposed to being self-employed as they are in the
COO George Flooks (below left) and sales and marketing director Mark Botha (below right) both joined FFME in April 2011
UK. We want them to deliver a high level of member experience, and their remuneration is based on delivering a set number of service hours – inductions and group exercise sessions, for example – rather than purely on the hours of PT they conduct.”
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS Flooks continues: “FFME inductions include a strong drive towards personal training and group exercise. The PTs conducting the inductions are able to start building relationships with members, and our percentage uptake of PT is in the double digits. Meanwhile group exercise
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