| In 2004, Don Murphy and Kim Kenyon were ready to close Group Fit at their 2 clubs, Gold’s Gym Wappingers Falls (“WF”) and Gold’s Gym Newburgh ("NB"). These second-generation owners viewed Group Fit as a small peripheral service in their clubs, which only catered to a handful of members. They agreed with the their club founders, Bill Austin and Mary Murphy, that it seemed logical to fill the GF spaces with more equipment. So they planned to put cardio machines in their studios and dump their GF service completely.
A complete change of direction
By contrast today, Don is a GF advocate to the extent that he is now a National Trainer for BODYCOMBAT® and states “GF is the focal point around which everything else revolves.” Ironically, Don and Kim noticed that a local competitor, World Gym, was poaching members from WF as early as 2001, due to the great GF classes World Gym provided. Don raises a wry smile when he also explains that his team considered introducing pre-choreographed LES MILLS™ programmes in 2003, but rejected it because of the monthly license fee. |
- Ready to Close GF in 2004
- Top GF Manager secured in August 2004
- GF Manger brought team of great Instructors
- Adopted pre-choreographed GF
- Club paid to re-train incumbent freestyle Instructors
- Member growth from 5,800 – 15,166 within 2 years
- Membership fees USD 48 – 52 per month
- GF now central to all 3 clubs
- Two new clubs set up within 2 years
- Existing club expanded
- Members travel for GF
- 52 exclusive Instructors
- Instructors leave competitors to work at Gold’s
- Total GF monthly attendances at 3 clubs of 11,663
- Peak studio capacity used of 70%
- Cross-club buy-in to GF
|
Fate handed Don and Kim an extraordinary opportunity when Terri Albrecht came visiting. World Gym closed down their GF department when it became a Planet Fitness facility, leaving a whole team of local GF specialists without a home. Terri, World Gym’s former GF Manager, refused to be ignored. With her ambition, drive, and self confidence, she won over Bill, Mary, Don, and Kim with her promise that they would pick up a substantial number of new members from WorldGym, despite the 25 minute drive….all because of GF. With their announcement of offering LES MILLS™ programmes to their members in August 2004, NB and WF obtained 200 new members from the former World Gym, equating to annual revenue of over USD $100,000. Terri had already paid her way!
An extraordinary growth story 
At the introduction of pre-choreographed GF in August 2004, combined membership at NB and WF was 5,800 members with 1 GF studio at each site. Today, Bill, Mary, Don, and Kim own 3 Gold’s Gyms - NB, and 2 new facilities in Fishkill (“FK”) and Lagrange (“LG”), which total 15,166 members and 6 GF studios. It’s no coincidence that this growth was accompanied by rolling out 5 LES MILLS™ programmes in less than 2 years. By June ’06, all 7 LES MILLS™ programmes have been firmly established within less than 24 months of Terri’s arrival. GF enjoys an average of 11,500 monthly attendances in their clubs with circa 70% studio capacity utilized in peak time slots, because Don and Kim backed Terri to do GF the best way she knew how – to be World Class.
Instructor buy-in to prechoreography 
It’s been a frantic 20 months. While Terri brought a team of ready-certified Instructors with her to kickstart offering pre-choreographed GF at Golds NB and WF, she had to deal with the incumbent free-style instructors. Supported by Don and Kim, Terri took a very deep breath and explained that NB and WF were converting entirely to pre-choreographed programmes. While it was one of the toughest decisions she had ever made, Terri is adamant it was the right approach. Either the Instructors were all onboard with the change or they moved on. While they lost a couple of their top free-style Instructors, their departure caused nothing more than a short term ripple and GF quickly grew at an exponential rate.
Within a couple of months, the Instructor team was settled. In October 2004, BODYPUMP® was launched to existing members with signs, banners, POS flyers, club-wide announcements and special outfits for staff. This hype was accompanied by a mandate that every staff member had to attend a class of every programme at least once. This coupled with monthly staff meetings has fostered a cross-club referral culture so that PTs, sales and management work with GF as a top draw card in their customer service options. With this strategic emphasis, Terri enjoys the luxury of Instructors leaving competitor gyms to come and work with her 52-strong team, all of whom work exclusively for Gold’s Gym LG, FK, and NB. While GF is successfully marketed throughout the clubs, Terri’s reputation for in-house Instructor management is a further reason Instructors are attracted to the GF team.
Large scale quarterly GF events
Success is all around. RPM is so oversubscribed, Terri has had to introduce a sign in system. Trouble is that front-desk is getting mobbed 45 minutes before the classes begin! The confidence in GF has caused the team to focus on larger scale events. BODYPUMP® 56 was launched to the community around LaGrange using local advertising, cable news and flyers, so that within 5 days the maximum capacity class of 140 people had already signed up for the event. Gold’s Gym had to pool the BODYPUMP® equipment from NB, LG and FK to service the demand. Don, Terri and Kim are now looking forward to planning a ‘monster’ relaunch of 1 programme per quarter and hope to have 200 – 300 people doing BODYATTACK or BODYJAM® (the most recent timetable additions) in a themed event backed by internal and external promotion.
Can’t wait to see the DVD of that extravaganza!
Gold's Gym NB, FK, and LG are privately owned franchises in the Hudson Valley, New York State, USA and has 7 Les Mills programmes
Phillip says…..
Terri is obviously a top operator utilizing all the 8 Key Elements of the Group Fitness Management System with stunning results.
The message here is indisputable. A talented Group Fitness Manager with guts and vision can be a critical catalyst in planning the growth of your club’s business. A true leader carries their team with them and Terri’s ability to bring 12 Instructors from Worldgym to Golds, is proof of her inspirational “servant leadership.” Congratulations guys!