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INTERVIEW


The Colonel (above left) is used in marketing and online videos to show members how to do exercises in the gym (above right)


system will prompt you to move on to the next stage – we’ve developed six stages to work through.”


Tesco partnership So turning again to the Tesco partnership, what differences will there be – if any – between the Xercise4Less at Tesco offering and the standalone Xercise4Less clubs? “Size and offering-wise, I don’t think the model will vary much,” says Wright.


“If anything, I imagine our Tesco sites will be even more female-friendly. We’ll monitor and evaluate as we go along, and it will depend on the demographics of the location, but it’s quite likely the free weights won’t be as big as we’d normally put in, for example. “The opening hours will be the same


as at other Xercise4Less sites – 6.00am- 10.00pm during the week and 6.00am- 8.00pm at the weekend – unless that confl icts with Tesco’s opening hours. “They will be membership clubs just


like the others too, with the same £15 a month fee. People can visit on a ‘pay as you go’ basis, to tie in with their shopping, but that costs £5 a time and membership gives you reciprocal use of all our gyms anyway, so really it makes sense to opt for the £15 a month deal. “I expect usage patterns to be pretty much the same as at our other clubs too,


as the sites are similar – they’re all big, out-of-town clubs. When we do our due diligence on a new site, one of the things we look for in any case is to be close to a big supermarket, as we know that will give us huge footfall. “From our perspective, the key benefi t


of the new partnership is that it offers prime locations through which we can reach more people, to get even more people into fi tness.” Meanwhile, the partnership helps


Tesco reinforce its healthy living message: the supermarket chain already announced a deal with online lead generation company payasUgym.com late last year to provide gym passes to up to 16 million Clubcard members (see http://lei.sr?a=a1F2U). “Our store will continue to offer


everything our customers need for their weekly shop, with the added benefi t of a gym to help them lead a healthy lifestyle,” says Doug Wilson, Tesco corporate affairs manager. “The health and wellbeing of our customers and staff has always been a key focus for us. Fitting exercise into our days is never easy, but having a gym alongside the Tesco store means customers can access the facility at a time that suits them.” The agreement is essentially a


landlord/tenant deal, with the clubs operated by Xercise4Less. Wright says:


“The model won’t vary much. If anything, our Tesco sites will be even more female-friendly”


40 Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital


“We’ll open the fi rst in-store club next month – the fi rst of many – and we’re already in discussions about the next few sites. Going forward, we’ll work together to identify potential locations. “If you’d spoken to me 12 months ago,


our business plan was to get to 40 clubs by mid-2016 in the north of England. We’ve now rewritten that business plan to get to 100 clubs UK-wide in the same timeframe. One of the catalysts behind that was the Tesco deal – it’s a great springboard to get us UK-wide.”


Success story So what does Wright believe is the secret of Xercise4Less’s success? “Timing, clearly: there’s never been a


better time for a budget offering, with the state of the economy driving demand. I also think the lack of good customer journeys within the fi tness sector as a whole plays into the hands of the budget operators – if premium clubs don’t look after their members, it only helps reinforce our value for money message. “But the biggest thing has been the


impact of the economy on the cost of setting up and running clubs – more specifi cally, property. Our property costs are already a bit lower than for other operators, as we opt for larger out-of-town units, but we’re probably paying no more than 30–40 per cent of what we’d have been paying six years ago. And we’re still seeing downward pressure on commercial property. I can’t see that recovering for at least another 10 years. That’s plenty of time to grow the Xercise4Less estate to the 100-club mark and beyond.” ●


September 2013 © Cybertrek 2013


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