OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
The devil is in the detail. With a pool stock that’s long past its intended lifespan, we must look at each pool individually and make a plan
for £20–25, which is out of reach for many. However, when pools re-opened after the pandemic, we had to focus on servicing the huge demand for mainstream lessons. We’re now putting our focus back on parent-baby classes and believe we have a key advantage over some of the private providers. Parents’ behaviours are changing, going back to work earlier – especially with more funding available for nursery spaces – which means daytime classes aren’t convenient. They want to come in the evening and at weekends – and if you’re a private provider renting pool space, you might not have access then. Meanwhile, we have full flexibility around what we do with our pool space and when we do it. So we believe this is where a lot of our growth will come from over the next year. Interestingly, this is also an opportunity to reach the young adult audience I mentioned previously. When they have a baby, they begin to behave a little differently. They also bring their whole ecosystem with them, from grandparents to other mums from antenatal classes. All of a sudden you’ve captured a new audience, putting leisure centres and pools back on the list of places they go.
We’re exploring new opportunities in health, too, including a collaboration with the STA that bridges the gap between GP referral and aqua aerobics, using swimming as a way to get back into exercise. In another collaboration with the STA, we’re responding to the growing number of children with special educational needs who come to our swimming lessons – often with their learning difficulties undiagnosed. We feel it will be hugely positive for our swim teachers to be better trained and skilled in this area and we plan to train every one of them over the next year to 18 months, almost as an essential add-on to their swimming teacher qualification. One other point to note is that in terms of costs, GLL is on track to hit the 10 per cent energy savings we’ve targeted across the business. We’ve also benefited from Sport England’s Pool Support Fund to make 54 of our facilities more energy-efficient. As evidence builds around the impact of this funding across the sector, we hope more will be made available.
We’ll be focusing on parent and baby swimming lessons and believe we have a key advantage over some of the private providers
pads. We want to remind people that swimming remains one of the most affordable family activities to do. By taking kids away from their screens for an hour, it’s also one of the most worthwhile, for all the same reasons that adults come before and after work – to refresh their minds. Where we are speaking to young adults, we’re questioning why swimming wouldn’t be part of their fitness journey, explaining how this amazing sport is great for the body, mind and soul as well as for recovery from workouts. We’re starting to see Gen Z respond to this messaging. But of course, this demographic sees fitness as the new going out, so it’s doubly important that our pools are open and available to the public as much as possible. Even when swim lessons are going on, we therefore aim to have at least some of our pool space open to the public;
lessons rarely need the whole pool. In Cardiff, for example, we identified efficiencies in how the lessons could be run and freed up some space. It has enabled us to add 30 per cent more public hours to the programme. What comes next for GLL? We have an adult learn-to-swim partnership with easyJet this summer, with easyJet giving away six weeks of GLL swimming lessons to 1,000 adults. It should be a nice initiative to get a bit of publicity and promote adults learning to swim. Over the next 12 months, we’ll be focusing on parent and baby swimming lessons. We launched our Swimbies programme pre-pandemic, seeing a great opportunity in a buoyant market where private providers were selling classes
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STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2023 STATE OF THE UK SWIMMING INDUSTRY REPORT 2025
STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2023
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STATE OF THE UK SWIMMING INDUSTRY REPORT 2025
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