OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
How is the market for franchising? We’re seeing good interest in fitness as a franchising opportunity, although I do think Anytime is probably growing faster than the competition at the moment, with a number of brands – F45, for example – fairly flat. That’s not ideal, because to attract investment, the whole franchise environment needs to be healthy. We have two boxes to tick as franchisors. First, we need to showcase physical activity as an investable sector: vibrant, growing, creating economic and social value. We need to show that yes, there’s competition, but it’s this that drives consumer interest and engagement and gives people the opportunity to open a business. Of course we also need to showcase our products specifically, showing how good an investment they are for potential franchisees, but this is inextricably linked to showcasing fitness as a sector worth investing in. And if you look at data for the private sector as a whole, it does seem to be in a good place, with more investment in facilities over the past year and a positive outlook across the UK and beyond. There are challenges, however: higher build costs than used to be the case, the recent hike in the National Living Wage, and a lending environment that’s less vibrant since the pandemic; some franchisees come to us with all the capital they require, but for those who need to borrow, it is now more challenging. Government talks about supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs, but it could be doing a lot more to stimulate this part of the economy.
We’re moving towards a coaching-led model, with a range of premium services
on offer: recovery, nutrition, mental wellness and so on
What else is in the 2024 pipeline? Other focuses for this year include moving towards a more coaching-led model, with a range of premium services on offer. You can still pay for one-to-one personal training, but think about sports coaches: when they work with their athletes, it isn’t always about playing the sport. There’s also recovery, nutrition, skills training… That’s what we’re looking to create at Anytime Fitness. Rather than just offering personal training on the gym floor, there’ll also be educational group sessions on topics such as nutrition, recovery, sleep, hydration, mental wellness and how to best use the in-club technology: body scanners, heart rate-based systems and so on. We’ve run some successful trials already and will roll the model into more clubs this year. We’re also updating our tech stack with a new app, website and in-club technology to support the running of the business. And we’re always striving to be more agile in opening clubs, improving the timeline from start to end – although the new building safety regulations are a big headwind. Introduced as a result of the Grenfell disaster, these new regulations subject buildings of a certain height and structure to even more rigour than was previously the case. Patterns of urban development over the last 10–15 years have led to more city apartment blocks with commercial offerings on the ground floor – which is where a lot of Anytime Fitness clubs are located. It means we’re subject to the new building safety regulations. Many other fitness operators will be in the same boat, and it can add weeks, not to mention significant cost, to a project.
We’re subject to the new building safety regulations. Many other operators will be in the same boat. It can add weeks to a project.
Is Anytime Fitness embracing health? The health agenda is important to us. We spend time thinking about our purpose and people’s needs in coming to us, and we’d like to address health even more than we do. But ours aren’t local authority facilities. It makes it hard to access and serve people with complex health needs. Some of our clubs find a way to deliver rehab programmes or GP referral, for example, but this doesn’t happen consistently across our system. A lot of clubs find GPs aren’t even interested in speaking to them. We do have some great member success stories, where people with chronic health conditions or serious illnesses
have exercised with us and it’s helped them, and we share those with our members and other franchisees. We’ve done that since we started here 14 years ago. As a franchise system, however, Anytime Fitness is in many ways a series of independent clubs. We give franchisees the brand and the know-how to run the business, but the strong sense of community and connectivity between staff and members is driven by the fact the clubs are often managed closely by the owner. It means health programmes are local initiatives, rather than something we can drive centrally at this stage.
Anytime will complement gym floor PT with educational group sessions
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STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2024
STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2024
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