OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
GLL
“Reopening from the pandemic and going straight into an energy crisis meant that even as demand surged, we had to review expenditure and reduce operating hours by between two and 10 hours per centre per week,” says Andrew Clark, Head of Sport & Aquatics at leisure trust GLL. “Something had to give.” “Just by opening an hour later and closing an hour earlier, that’s around a 15% reduction in opening hours,” adds GLL founder Mark Sesnan. “Some of these reductions are still in place. We’d need financial support to be able to reinstate them.” Clark continues: “The annual cost of running a 25m pool has gone up from around £100,000 to around £250,000; we all know what’s happened with the cost of energy, but the cost of chemicals has also doubled. Additionally, we’re committed to being a Living Wage employer, so staffing costs are up as well. There’s certainly nothing left to invest in maintaining the ageing stock of public pools, which means their life will probably be shortened. “And yet price increases have to be approved by the local authorities, and certainly they could never be increased to a point at which costs were covered.”
Post-COVID – and in spite of the energy crisis – GLL has
innovated within its swim offering like never before, say Andrew Clark, Head of Sport & Aquatics, and founder Mark Sesnan
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STATE OF THE UK SWIMMING INDUSTRY REPORT 2023
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