NEWS
Could Pool Availability Cap Growing Demand For Baby Swim Lessons?
The private swim school sector is a thriving, multi- million pound market in the UK, having grown enormously over the past decade. It teaches hundreds of thousands of children to swim every year and continues to dominate the baby swimming market.
Although baby swimming has been around for many years, it is only in the last 10-12 years that its popularity has grown to the extent that it is now a mainstream activity. As a result, the private swim school sector has flourished and now delivers the majority of all UK learn-to- swim programmes.
But has baby swimming reached its peak in the UK? As the lead awarding body for baby swimming teaching in the UK,
STA reports that there is no sign of it wavering yet. In its first nationwide industry survey since 2009, STA reports that 82% of the swim schools who took part in the research said they had seen a ‘significant’ rise over the last five years in the number of babies (youngsters aged two and under) they teach weekly. Almost 86% of the 206 respondents also said the baby swim market had not yet reached its peak, although many warned that growth could be capped because of pool time availability.
More than half admitted that the increase in demand for lessons compared with pool time availability was a concern; while a further 58% said a limited number of pools also gave them cause for concern. Just over one third (34%) also cited a lack of adequately qualified teachers as a problem for their business, compared with 24% five years ago. On a positive note, 60 new swim schools are reported to have opened since the last survey, a growth of just over 27% in five years,
F T Leisure Completes East Manchester Project
F T Leisure has completed work on the £740,000 Beswick Community Hub contract. The new leisure centre, which is situated next door to the Manchester City Academy site, replaces the existing Miles Platting Leisure Centre and is part of a massive regeneration programme for this area of Manchester. The centre has a single 35-metre x 21-metre swimming pool with a moveable floor complete with self depositing steps and submersible boom – 21m long, 2.4m high and 2m wide – which splits the pool into a 25-metre pool and a training pool. The 35-metre pool has been designed to accommodate a full competition water polo pitch as the facility will become the home of the GB water polo team.
There are two separate filtration systems, one for each zone, with separate balance tanks as the pool will be split –
12 June 2015 SPN
25-metre pool and training pool – for the majority of the time. The centre also includes a health and fitness suite, a dance studio, a rugby pitch and new grass sports pitches. It is expected to attract an average of 600 visitors each day and will be used by the general public as well as pupils from the nearby sixth form college and two local primary schools. It is part of the ongoing Etihad Campus master plan, a huge development of new public facilities set to establish Beswick as a world class sport and community hub. The project has been
funded equally by the council, Manchester City FC and Sport England. The main contractor was Laing O’Rourke working with B3 Architects and Sheerwater Consultants.
F T Leisure 0161 494 5785
www.ftleisure.co.uk
and almost 70% of all respondents said they had a waiting list for baby swimming classes, down slightly from 77% in 2009. Franchise swim schools were cited as having the largest waiting lists at 81%. Zoe Cooper, Head of Accounts at STA, said: “The landscape has changed dramatically since we conducted our first survey five years ago but this survey has shown us that there is still a growing and healthy demand for baby swim teaching and that can only be good news. “Parents clearly recognise that it is important for their babies to gain confidence in the water
and by sending them to baby swim lessons, it means their youngsters are being properly prepared for more formal swimming lessons.” She added: “It’s also encouraging to see how privately owned swim schools have matured and are growing their businesses, with 83% stating they run additional sessions to baby swimming, including learn-to-swim programmes (75%), adult (35%) and disability (19%) sessions and AquaNatal (8%).”
Interestingly 18% of privately owned swim schools said they used their ‘own pool’.
“This survey has highlighted some extremely interesting statistics about the private swim school sector and I would not be at all surprised to see more schools taking the step of building their own pools to cope with the increase in demand,” concluded Zoe.
STA 01922 645097
www.sta.co.uk
Industrial Chemicals Ltd Enters The UK Leisure Market
Manufacturing company Industrial Chemicals Ltd has recently entered the leisure industry to supply quality, affordable swimming pool chemicals into the commercial and retail sectors. The privately owned UK business has its head office in Essex, with a further six sites around the country. With its own transport fle et, which is able to deliver anything from a 1,000 litre pump over to 10 litre containers anywhere in the UK, the company can confidently offer complete nationwide coverage, a full product range and a comprehensive technical advice service.
The business has recently recruited Damian Todd to develop and promote their
services within the leisure industry. Commenting on his appointed, he said: “One of the main reasons I joined Industrial Chemicals Ltd is the fact that we have significant manufacturing capabilities, producing products widely used in the leisure industry such as Sodium Hypochlorite, Hydrochloric Acid and Poly Aluminium Chloride. This enables our team to offer high quality products and service at affordable prices.”
Industrial Chemicals Ltd 01757 211500
www.icgl.co.uk
www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk
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