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At first glance, it’s hard to believe. With only 4,000 people in Livermore Falls and a local economy dominated by the paper mill, Fitness Stylz has more than quadrupled its membership in 2.5 years, while being the most expensive club in town. It’s such a tough market that a national chain only lasted a year, leaving the town to independent club owners to dominate the fitness scene.
In this low-to-mid income environment, Fitness Stylz’s members pay USD 456 per annum compared to competitors who are charging USD 349 per annum or less. Members drive up to 35 minutes to get to the club rather than staying at home to watch TV or to grab some extra sleep. |
- Small town of 4,000 people
- Launched GF in November 2003
- Members quadruped in 2.5 years
- Growth from 80 – 350 members
- Premium priced in area
- 90% of attendances in GF
- 16 Instructors including 5 men
- 100% Instructor retention rate
- 18% of GF attendees are male
- Built new club with double GF space
- Invested in theatrical stage set up
- Relaunches every quarter
- Members travel 35 minutes for GF
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GF as draw card
Fitness Stylz draw-card is pre-choreographed Group Fitness. Over 90% of all attendances are in Group Fit with an 100% Les Mills timetable offering 4 programmes. Since launching BodyPump in November 2003, membership has grown from 80 people to 350 members in June 2006. GF delivers 600 attendances per week of the total 650 visits the clubs receives. Management believes GF is the key reason why Fitness Stylz beats the industry standard of 1.75 visits per week (IHRSA) with their weekly average of 1.86 member visits.
The biggest challenge the club faced, was trying to meet demand in its tiny GF studio of 1,000 ft². The owner, Tom Roy, knew the room was much too small yet states, “that’s all the space we had. So we went for it.” Within 13 months, the club purchased a 14,400 ft² facility up the road, with a 2,200 ft² room which is home to up to 60 BodyPumpers. For now, Tom and his full time GF Manager, Andrea Richards, can breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy having enough GF space for their loyal members.
Studio designed for ‘the show’
Tom and Andrea attribute their attendance success to what they call “the show”. Based on guidelines they received in the Group Fitness Management Workshop, they designed their studio for theatrical effect. Hence in the new club there is an 18 * 12 ft stage, flexible track lighting and a great stereo. With no mirrors to distract attendees, the entire focus of class members is the Instructor, who leads them to enjoy every minute of their workouts. To make sure that GF is impossible to ignore, the studio is next to reception so that every time a member arrives or leaves, they get a hit of GF excitement.
Strong Instructor team
The stars of the show are Fitness Stylz’s 16 Instructors and there has been 100% retention of Instructors since November 2003 for two reasons. Firstly, recruits are attracted by the quality of the training received and secondly, they stay because Tom and Andrea have created a team driven to have fun while they excel.
Yet recruiting the right Instructor talent has been a learning journey for Fitness Stylz. When the club was getting ready to launch BodyPump, Tom focused on filling the spaces at the training module and found that some recruits dropped out or did not fit with the essence of the programme. By contrast, Andrea and Tom left two spaces empty for a BodyCombat module this year because they are committed to having the right people in training from day 1. They believe this is an additional factor underpinning their strong Instructor retention.
Recruiting male Instructors has been another source of GF success. 5 of the 16 Instructors are men, which has helped widen the audience for group exercise. 18% of GF attendances are by men, compared to many clubs worldwide which have less than 10% of GF visits from male members
Building a loyal Instructor team
Result are derived from the right attitude and utilizing systems within the resources available. So Instructors are video assessed every 6 months for each programme they teach (a maximum of 3 per Instructor). Excellence is recognised with gift certificates and team spirit is built with regular BBQ’s and relaunches activities. Every quarter the club relaunches its 4 programmes and always pays the Instructors to team-teach, as it gives the attendees a more exciting spectacle. Instructors practice together free of charge, quite simply because they love what they do. They also dress in line with each event’s theme. One quarter the stage was made to look like a Boxing Ring for BodyCombat with Instructors wearing army fatigues. Members actively look forward to the excitement of every relaunch event and so sign up a week in advance for spaces.
GF for the whole family
This success story is fuelled by Tom and Andrea’s motivation to provide great fun fitness experiences across all age groups. Whole families workout in GF with such popularity that a couple of parents told their children they could only take classes if they kept up their school work. Meanwhile a 15 year-old member was ask what she wanted for her birthday – and she said “a BodyPump class with her friends”!
Tom and Andrea are building a community that enjoys fitness and is changing lives by creating a destination where people have so much fun, that they will travel 35 minutes to work out. Fantastic.
Fitness Stylz is a privately owned club in Livermore Falls, Maine, USA and has 4 Les Mills Programmes
Phillips says….
What an achievement to take a small club with a limited local market and build success with a premium priced strategy. It proves that if people really enjoy something they will not only pay, they will travel too.
Tom and Andreas cite the 8 Key Elements explored in the Group Fitness Management Workshop as the source of many ideas for managing their GF business. Their learnings around recruiting Instructors who fit the essence of each programme are illuminating and echo the messages of Key Element 3 “Recruit World Class Instructors and keep them.” With their desire to create a ‘show’ they have focused on the guidelines in Key Element 5 “Create the Best Studio you can afford” with obvious results. Great work…and a source of motivation for clubs of all sizes.