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In September 2003, Barry Monaghan and Geraldine McAleenan took a big punt. They believed that a club offering just 2 specialist fitness services could prosper in the small town of Newry, in Northern Ireland. With a population of only 27,000 and no other clubs operating in the town, they opened a club with a pay-per-use strategy, offering top quality Group Fitness (“GF”) and Personal Training (“PT”) services. With no investment in cardio machines and weights, Barry and Geraldine focussed all their attention on investing in great people to pull members into the club.
A highly trained team
Barry and Geraldine’s model relies on having highly trained and passionate fitness professionals on BGM’s team. So the majority of the club’s tight-knit group of 7 Instructors are also PTs, which has immediate benefits. PT’s can market their services to a captive audience in class and there is cross-club understanding of how well PT and GF can work together, when creating individual training plans for PT clients. Further, BGM only has a 100% Les Mills timetable, because Barry and Geraldine wanted to enjoy the full benefits of world class yet standardised training for their Instructors. Like any sustainable business, systems and highly motivated staff drive BGM’s success. |
- Small Irish club
- GF and PT only offered to members
- Pay-per-use at £5 per GF class
- 32 classes per week
- 75% capacity used
- 1,000 attendances per week
- Most of the 7 Instructors are PTs
- Instructors paid at mainland UK rates
- BGM rewards Instructors for commitment
- Strong belief in systemised training
- Relaunches every quarter
- Make a small profit on every relaunch
- Almost doubled space needed in 2.5 years
- Goal of 1,500 attendances per week by February 07
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While the local market may be somewhat restricted, BGM’s 2 GF studios are sizeable. The RPM™ studio has 40 bikes and the main GF studio can house 50 BODYPUMP® devotees when full. It’s impressive that across the 32 classes delivered by BGM’s 7 Instructors, 70% of available capacity is used in every class and BGM is enjoying 1,000 attendances per week.
Strong, steady growth
Growth has been rewardingly steady. Within 2.5 years (in February 2006) BGM moved from a single studio site of 3,500 ft² to a 2-studio facility of 6,000 ft². Now RPM™ , BGM’s biggest programme, has its own dedicated space, much to the delight of members and Instructors. Demand for more classes drove the move to a larger space plus the need to provide BODYBALANCE® with a warmer, more comfortable environment!
Growth has also been supported by an incremental increase in the number of GF programmes offered to members. The club started with RPM® and BODYPUMP® in September 2003 and today has 6 Les Mills programmes across its timetable. That means that quarterly relaunches now occur over 6 days, with one “show class” per day. Interestingly, BGM always charge their standard £5 per class entry fee for relaunch “show classes”. There is no discount offered for participation and the club always make a return on their investment.
Relaunches every quarter without fail
BGM relaunches every quarter and most recent event cost only £300. This was spent primarily on newspaper advertising, however Barry and Geraldine believe that BGM’s most effective marketing tools have been word-of-mouth and “mini” performances of the programmes in local shopping areas.
The relaunch generated £1,500 of revenue from 300 people attending the 6 “show classes” and secured 20 new members. With BGM offering a bulk of their regular customers a 10-class pass rather than a yearly membership, annualising revenue from new memberships becomes irrelevant. Yet even though the monetary value here is not huge, the relaunch provided a payback of 5 times from the event. Further each class was at 100% capacity, with the relaunch creating a huge hit of excitement and interest within the club.
Rewarding Instructor performance
Barry and Geraldine view BGM’s GF and PT specialisms as creating positive pressure for his staff to perform. BGM’s 7 Instructors are expected to deliver superb experiences every time across the 1 – 4 programmes each Instructor teaches. They are consequently paid at UK market rates of £20 - £25 per class, despite operating in a small town in Northern Ireland. With a view to making sure the Instructors feel valued, they pay for Instructors to attend fitness conventions and super quarterly workshops as rewards for their exceptional work. The Instructors feel recognised and love their classes and members so much, that they practice for all quarterly events for free. It’s noteworthy that most of the Instructors have been recruited from the front row of classes, which creates an additional level of loyalty in the team to BGM.
Well planned attendance strategies
Barry and Geraldine are always planning how to grow attendances and so BGM’s is forecasting for a bigger haul of new members at the next relaunch. There will be a larger budget for external advertising and 3 days of ‘street’ demonstrations in the main Newry shopping centre to create extra profile for the event. Add to that, Barry and Geraldine are working with Instructors and trialling Instructor recruits to support expanding the timetable and reaching 1,500 weekly attendances by February 2007.
BGM also uses programme specific challenges to drive attendances. Currently the club is running an RPM® Tour De France where members attend 3 classes per week and get a ‘goody bag’ of branded clothing and specialist nutrition packs to reward their weekly commitment. The results are great: in the searing heat of the summer, the RPM® Tour De France just delivered 100% capacity in the RPM® studio with 120 rides in 3 classes. Not bad in a club with no air conditioning!
BGM Fitness is a privately owned club in Newry, County Armagh, Northern Ireland and has 6 Les Mills programmes
Phillip says….
This extraordinary success story bears out the power of Key Element 7 of the Group Fitness Management System “Plan for Success”. Barry and Geraldine spotted a gap in the market and filled it with a specialist offering of PT and GF in rural Ireland. Their pay-per-use strategy has shown itself to be very effective with substantial capacity usage across the timetable and speedy expansion to meet demand for classes. As owners and managers of their business, Barry and Geraldine respond rapidly to meet customer needs and have shown how to use a niche business model to create a powerhouse of success. Superb.