OPINION
Is The Wet Leisure Industry Typical Of UK Business?
“There are clear trends in business in the UK, some of which we follow and some we seem to avoid. Where does our industry differ, and is that a good thing or bad?” asks Jamie Adams, Managing Director of Golden Coast
W
hat comes to mind when we think about business in the UK? The media tends to focus on the banks and financial
institutions that turn over billions. Oil companies with empires stretching across the world. Telecoms giants and big retailers. Those are the companies that have the highest profiles but are they typical of British business?
There are 5.4 million businesses in the UK and over 99% of them are classified as SMEs. (Small to Medium Enterprise.) Eighty two per cent of SMEs employ less than ten people. So in terms of size of staff, wet leisure businesses are absolutely typical. Small businesses are so important to the British economy that there are lots of government and industry surveys done about them.
That’s where I have looked for those trends, and these are some that I’ve found.
DON’T LOOK FOR A GAP IN THE MARKET, LOOK FOR A NICHE Niche businesses are highly focused. They look at one small section of a market where they can specialise and their customers are passionate about what that business can offer.
A niche makes you stand out from the crowd. Perhaps a bicycle shop that specialises in the finest hand-crafted bikes. What about that Hipster café that only sells cereals or maybe it’s a new niche, like an e-cigarette shop. In the wet leisure industry, you might think of a business specialising in natural, outdoor pools or perhaps top-end, bespoke spa and sauna rooms. They may not have the biggest turnover, but their profit margin is usually high and their customers are loyal.
RESPECT YOUR ELDERS Baby Boomers have been the most influential group on British society since the sixties and most of those boomers are now in their 60s and 70s. They are relatively well off and they put greater emphasis on youth and vitality than any ‘pensioners’ before them.
They are a big influence on retail and many other businesses in the UK. I think they are having an impact on the wet leisure business as well. Spas, saunas and even pools are being bought for their
84 December 2015 SPN
contribution to health and wellbeing. ‘Hydrotherapy’ has become a marketing buzzword for our industry and it is a word that appeals to this group more than any other.
BE UPWARDLY MOBILE
It seems as if we have always had rather a ‘love/hate’ relationship with the internet. But almost every wet leisure business has a web site and the vast majority of us are using social media for business. Which is just as well, because the internet isn’t going away; in fact I’d say it was the one thing that appeared to be influencing and changing SME’s the most.
And the latest trend here is accessing the web via a mobile device. That now accounts for more than 50% of web traffic. For all of us, that means that our websites better work on a smartphone or a tablet as well as they do on a computer. But it means much more than that.
Mobile devices are popular because they are convenient. What could be more convenient than a customer ordering chemicals or a service engineer looking for parts using their smartphone? People are controlling the heating in their homes using their smartphone. They will want to use it to turn on the sauna and heat up the spa as well.
As an industry, if we aren’t coming to terms with mobile, then we are standing still.
GET A FEW QUALIFICATIONS Most businesses want to grow and SMEs are no exception. Of course, the question then is, how do you go about growing? In a government survey of those small to medium businesses, 81% of those who were trying to expand intended to do so by increasing the skills of their workforce. In fact, that was the most popular strategy. The other side of the coin is that in last
year’s Wet Leisure Survey, not being able to find skilled employees was one of the most common reasons as to what limited business growth.
Industry specific training and nationally recognised qualifications are common throughout the UK economy but the wet leisure industry has very few indeed.
DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE CLIMATE
The economic climate was the biggest challenge for SMEs in that government survey. Our own industry survey reflected that, but saw the weather as a similarly important problem. Rather surprisingly, figures suggest that over 50% of UK businesses are affected by seasonality; good or bad weather has an effect on them.
The thing is, it is possible to mitigate the problems of a seasonal business. Customer behaviour can change – ice cream and soft drinks were once only consumed in the summer. Business behaviour can change – garden centres become out of town shopping centres and seaside hotels promote out-of-season short breaks.
I don’t know what the magic bullet is for our industry but there are ways that we can be less at the mercy of the weather and we should pursue them.
THAT’S JUST TYPICAL All in all, I think we are quite typical of UK business and I think we can learn things by looking at how other industries overcome problems or react to opportunities.
Whether we look for niche markets or embrace mobile technology is probably down to individual businesses. Better training and better qualifications; isn’t that something that the industry as a whole needs to be looking at? And let me end with this. Until a few years ago, any picture that anyone drew of our industry would have been based on a few guesses and a hunch. The Wet Leisure Industry Survey has allowed us to see what is going on in our industry as a whole much more clearly. This year’s survey is now taking place so, whether you do it online or on paper, please take the time to respond and share your thoughts and ideas with the rest of your industry.
Jamie Adams is Managing Director of Golden Coast, the current Chairman of Pool Industry Promotions (PIP) and a board member of the British Swimming Pool Federation (BSPF).
www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk
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