How much of your club is earning you money? Are the parts that turn a healthy profit having to subsidise other areas? With health clubs experiencing increased competition from lean online businesses, it’s time to stop turning a blind eye to those areas of your facilities that aren’t currently pulling their weight.
This situation is exacerbated by the “enormous change” going on in the industry, according to Rob Gregory, owner of Lifetime Health. He points to the polarisation of mature markets into low-cost and premium sectors, and the impact of digital solutions, as putting ever more pressure on club-based operators to make the most of their assets.
So what does all this mean for anyone running facility-based businesses? Will we start to see smaller clubs, with facilities being pared back? Will swimming pools be deemed too expensive to operate? Will cafés be seen as a luxury? With consumer trends showing that people increasingly don’t want to pay for services they don’t actually use, has less become more?
Could operators make larger clubs more profitable by sub-letting space to tenants whose offering complements that of the club, and who could drive additional footfall? Should we find ways of engaging those who are taking fitness into their own hands: for example, offering specialist training for cyclists and triathletes who haven’t considered a membership?
And how about those empty areas of the club that are just being used as storerooms or corridors: could a bit of reshaping bring unused spaces to life and turn them into income-generators?
Finally, if we are to remain facility-based, how can we make better use of technology to support that offering, making the club a vital, physical hub of a broader offering that also encompasses out-of-club activities? We ask the experts.