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interview

Peter Roberts at the

Manchester club – Pure Gym’s first site, which

opened in November 2009

PETER ROBERTS

“O

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ne of our big challenges has been consumer perception: it’s difficult to get our

concept across to people until they’ve actually seen it. They just see our price point – we’re charging £15.99 a month – and assume it must be rubbish.” Peter Roberts is speaking to me about

Pure Gym, the low-cost health club chain of which he is founder and MD. He continues: “However, we spend a million pounds per site on the fi t-out, not including the cost of the gym equipment, and that’s without buying the property – we’re doing them all leasehold. Our clubs offer a good-sized gym with very good equipment: ours is supplied by Matrix and we have between 170 and 200 pieces in each club. So budget is perhaps not

the right word to use, because it sounds as though it’s cheap. In fact it’s not cheap at all.” Joining is all done

The founder and MD of Pure Gym talks to Kate Cracknell about the practicalities of

creating a profitable business at the low-cost end of the market

online, with fees paid by monthly direct debit and no contract. There’s also 24- hour PIN access to the clubs – security and IT systems are provided by Secure Options and 11 Out Of 10. Nevertheless, Pure Gym has higher staffi ng levels than other low-cost operators, with a base of around 10 to 12 gym fl oor personnel per site. It also offers some classes, included in the monthly fee, although there are no separate group exercise studios. “Just because it’s low-cost doesn’t

mean it’s easy,” explains Roberts. “This is a competitive industry and you can’t compromise on your standards. You have to get the right atmosphere, the

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

right machines, the right number of people to look after your members. If you don’t, people will soon leave you. “There will always be people who

want to go to clubs like David Lloyd and Esporta for the breadth of their offering. And at the end of the day, for a lot of people it’s about convenience: if there’s a Virgin, an LA Fitness or a Bannatyne’s down the road, they’ll probably go there. It’s not all about money, that’s for sure. “We’re doing a lot of focus groups

across the UK to try and understand what people from different age groups and backgrounds want; we’ve only been open for a few months [the fi rst site

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