interview
Fitness Express – now rebranded Mosaic Spas and Health Clubs – celebrated its 25th birthday last month. Its MD talks to Kate Cracknell about challenging the norms and the company’s latest venture into standalone, owned sites
DAVE COURTEEN
“W
hat you need to do, as a health club brand, is be strong in the area where you are,” says
Dave Courteen, MD of Mosaic Spas and Health Clubs (formerly Fitness Express). Referring to the company’s recently acquired Shrewsbury Club – its first venture into owned sites from a background in contract management – he explains: “Our competition in Shrewsbury is Bannatyne’s and we can’t compete against that brand, against the awareness that Duncan brings. “However, we know that 95 per cent
of our members live within a 12-minute drive time of our club, so we don’t have to establish a national brand. If you ask people in Shrewsbury where they’d go for coffee, for example, they’ll probably say Ashley’s. Ashley has Illy coffee, he’s friendly, passionate about his business, and he charges the same as Starbucks. Up until a few months ago I’d never heard of Ashley’s, but he’s successfully competing with Starbucks in Shrewsbury because he’s creating a brand that’s well-known locally. “It won’t upset me if people in other
towns across the UK haven’t heard of us. All we can do is try to create a unique brand in Shrewsbury, just as Ashley’s has done. We’re a local club for local people.”
company history Established in 1987 by Dave Courteen and Steve Taylor, Fitness Express started life operating hotel gyms on a
30
Courteen at Imagine Spa Blofi eld Heath, a full day spa located just outside Norwich, UK
contract management basis, reaching 14 sites by 2001. It was then acquired by Crown Sports, with Courteen joining the executive board of the Plc and taking on the role of deputy MD of Dragons Health Clubs. In 2004 – seeing opportunity in the
hotel spa market and keen to re-establish the entrepreneurial culture of Fitness Express – Courteen and Taylor, with the support of non-executive director Oliver Wright, leveraged the investment of high net worth individuals to re-acquire the business from Crown Sports. The company’s fi rst spa launched in 2004 at the Radisson Edwardian in Manchester – “a health club with fi ve treatment rooms,” says Courteen – with its fi rst Imagine- branded day spa opening in 2007. In mid-2011, the high net worths were bought out by Downing Corporate
Read Health Club Management online at
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Finance, which took a 30 per cent stake in the business – valued in excess of £1m – for a minimum of fi ve years. “That’s when we took on the name Mosaic, because we have lots of different brands which are all being pulled together – including those of our clients, with many sites operated under their own brands,” explains Courteen. As part of the agreement, Paul
Beaumont from Downing has joined Courteen, Taylor and Wright on the board of Mosaic. Downing also injected an additional £400,000 investment to push the company into a new growth phase, “with further funding available for acquisitions”. Courteen continues: “We’ll continue
to grow the contract management business. However, we felt there was an opportunity in the current economic
may 2012 © cybertrek 2012
HEALTH CLUB SPA
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