“I
t’s not about gyms any more. It’s about people, about professionals,” says renowned personal trainer and industry
spokesperson Matt Roberts. “The industry is in a very interesting
phase and operators have to really focus. They have to reinvent themselves, fi gure out what their product is and how that fi ts into someone’s overall pattern of activity. “I believe it’s about great professionals
delivering great information in any setting, with the gym being just one of those.”
IMPARTING INFORMATION Rewind to 1995, when the then 22-year- old Roberts opened his first PT studio in London’s upmarket Mayfair area, and it’s clear this sort of knowledge gathering and dissemination has been at the heart of his vision from the outset. “I grew up around sport – my dad was
a footballer and I was a sprinter – and I loved competing. I competed at a high level as a junior. But even at the age of 15, the fascination for me lay in the physiology, the biomechanics, how to make the body perform better. “Even at that young age, I was very
clear that the industry needed fantastic personal training venues fi lled with amazing trainers, with nutritionists and physiotherapists on-hand, doctors on-call for consultations and so on, so that Joe Public could benefi t from the sort of training I’d enjoyed. My idea was to create genuinely inspiring venues – creative spaces with a more bespoke offering that were more in- tune with what people really wanted to experience at a gym. “Aged 22, I found a location in the
middle of Mayfair – an abandoned art gallery in what was then a little
recession. I convinced the landlord I was a good bet to take the space on and jumped straight in.” He continues: “Our USP – and I
say ‘our’, although of course it was just me at that stage, because there was a big company mindset even then – was the same then as it is now: a focus on delivering high-end scientifi c information in a very user-friendly, intuitive way through staff who understand the client, and who don’t necessarily conform to the normal perceived view of what a gym instructor might be. From day one, I recruited people into my training team who were very worldly, highly educated, articulate and who understood how to tap into the mindset of the client. “We created a setting that’s private,
very bespoke, very much a refl ection of the user’s home rather than a conventional gym space. Clients come to us feeling comfortable and secure, safe and looked after, but also informed. That’s proved to be an incredibly powerful combination.”
GROWING THE BRAND The business has grown steadily since the opening of that first facility. There are now five Matt Roberts clubs in London: four owned and one operated by Roberts’ trainers in the Belgravia- based private ladies’ club, Grace. A sixth location is set to open at the Forte Village in Sardinia this month. Retreats are also available – in the UK, and imminently in Sardinia – offering personalised exercise, nutrition and pampering to small groups of clients.
So how easy it is to grow a PT
business where the owner is, as Roberts himself acknowledges, the brand? He explains: “If you’re a trainer and the company is your brand, the danger you face is that people only want to train with you – that they call and ask to train with you specifi cally. But at my clubs, 99 per cent of the time they don’t. People just want to come and train with a Matt Roberts trainer – someone doing the method I’ve created. For me, that’s the measure of brand success.” So how has he achieved this? “We have
phenomenal internal training processes and a great marketing and PR division. We make sure each thing we do is creative and innovative, and we give every employee an opportunity to be involved, to be part of the story rather than just a cog in a machine. We make sure the team really understands the brand so they can act as ambassadors and help take our company story to the broader public.” But it’s not only the club portfolio that
has grown: Roberts has also had great success with brand extensions such as nutritional supplements, fi tness products,
There are currently fi ve Matt Roberts clubs in London, with plans to develop a standalone small group training concept this year
April 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
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