INDUSTRY VIEWS
SUSTAINABILITY & AFFORDABILITY HOW UK GYMS HAVE BEEN SWEATING THEIR ASSETS
From market data and conversations with operators, it’s clear the UK fitness sector is back and firing on all cylinders. But it’s been a rough ride, with many businesses struggling financially since the pandemic. It’s meant operators have wanted to sweat their assets more than ever. We’ve stepped in to enable that, refurbishing quite a lot of equipment that we’ve then put back into the same gyms. Take Spin bikes, for example. The metal frame itself lasts a lifetime, so really it’s about how the frame looks and the other components that can wear over time. With the facilities to shotblast and powder-coat in-house, as well as laser printing logos, we can make customers’ existing equipment look as good as new – and in many ways even better, as it’s bespoke branded and in their colour scheme. We also source our own pedals and bearings rather than getting these spare parts from the manufacturers; it saves our customers a lot of money without any compromise in the product quality. We can also 3D print a number of plastic parts in-house, such as chain guards. An example: we had a customer with 30 bikes, so we took 15 at a time and totally refurbished them. Instead of purchasing new bikes for £2,000 each, they spent £200–300 on each existing bike and got probably four or five more years out of them. This is also the green solution, of course – ticking another box for operators – as is the fact we manufacture our own Core Gym Equipment plate-loaded strength range in Britain, using British steel and British-made components. British manufacturing addresses another pain point for operators, too: the long lead times, often 12–16 weeks, for many new equipment orders. For Core Gym Equipment, the lead time – including bespoke colours and upholstery – is around four weeks. Finally, operators told us they wanted servicing to be simpler and more honest. So, that’s what we do. If there are products we know we find hard to maintain, we say so, but the basic promise is that we can look after every piece of kit that isn’t under warranty, whatever the brand, with a goal of 90 per cent first-time fix. We’ve become a one-stop shop for asset management, with a system that identifies every piece of kit, tracks its history – if something keeps breaking down, we know and can suggest it’s replaced – knows when other equipment in the gym is coming out of warranty and into our contract, and allows the customer to access this data. It makes the whole process easier and more transparent for operators, as well as helping them plan future investment: assets sweated just the right amount before being traded out to maintain a good member experience.
We’ve become a one-stop shop for asset management, with a system that makes the whole process easier and more transparent for operators GRAHAM BERTRAND Founder, PSLT
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STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2024
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