Case Study Fitness Plus

Fitness Plus

Introduction

Australians have displayed a dramatic increase in their knowledge and participation in better health and increased exercise during the last ten years. The change to more healthy and active lifestyles has also prompted rapid growth in the number of commercial health centres, fitness centres and gyms. These new centres are found in many geographic areas and intend to fill the demand created by the growing health and fitness market. The individual health and fitness programmes offered by the growing number of commercial health centres, fitness centres and gyms throughout Australia have also readily expanded to meet the changing needs of a diverse clientele.

Many commercial health centres, fitness centres and gyms now have specialised instructors who design programmes for health and exercise.  These specialised types of health and exercise systems provide individual programmes for customers and provide processes to monitor their progress. Membership fees for these types of commercial health centres and gyms are normally between $400 and $1000 per year.

The other type of centres available for health and exercise are the voluntary, community, and/or government subsidised centres. These centres tend to cover a wide range of activities, including children’s holiday programmes, education, recreational health, exercise, craft and cultural programmes. The instructors tend not to specialise but move between all areas. In most cases a small fee is required from  participants to each session; however, in cases of financial hardship it is possible for the centres to provide a subsidy.

Background

Fitness Plus has been operating in Southern California for five years. Fitness Plus has excellent facilities and specialises in health and fitness programmes using high technology weights and gymnastic equipment. The centre has racquetball courts, a pool, and it also runs weekday aerobic and circuit classes during lunchtimes and after work, with the last classes finishing at midnight. The classes are extended to all day on weekends and run on all the even hours. Fitness Plus has an annual subscription fee of AUD $850, which can be paid in 3, 6 or 12 month instalments.

Fitness Plus is privately owned and operated by two full-time professional fitness consultants and they employ fifteen staff members, all of them with experience in the health and fitness area. Both of the owners have several years’ experience in health and fitness training, and they are both retired professional athletes. The owners design exercise programmes to suit those customers who desire general fitness and for those customers who are in training for a special event or sport.

Fitness Plus also offer a spa pool, sauna, and provide sports massages. The centre has a full-time physiotherapist and a part-time sports doctor. The centre also has a restaurant on the premises that serves health foods and drinks. A vitamin bar adjoins the restaurant, and customers purchase vitamin supplements from the centre as part of their regular health or fitness programme. In addition, the centre has a complete DVD/Video library for its members with a variety of DVD/Videos on weight training, aerobics and nutrition.

Fitness Plus has many attributes that separate it from competitors in the health and fitness market, but there is one in particular that the owners often point out to potential new members. Fitness Plus, unlike many health centres, fitness centres and gyms that move into existing buildings, has been able to construct its building and physical plant around its health and fitness services. This has enabled Fitness Plus to provide a very good flow of customer activities through its service, and it has also enabled the centre to create a favourable image of its service that positively influences its customers. Members often comment favourably on the centre’s ample parking and prompt front-desk service, its flexibility in scheduling courses, the lack of queues on equipment, the staff attention when required, and the smaller sizes of the centre’s aerobic and circuit classes.

Fitness Plus operates an open suggestion box for its customers and the comments the centre receives about the ‘service culture’ the employees have created are very favourable. Members appreciate the staff’s professional attitude, neat appearance, and the pleasant way they interact with customers. Members of Fitness Plus are also impressed by the centre’s physical environment, and the cues and positive training atmosphere that the physical environment creates.

On a recent holiday to the United States, a director from the North Perth Health and Fitness Centre visited Fitness Plus to meet its employees, use the equipment and view the building design. The director is from a recreation centre which presently offers its members squash courts, weight training facilities, a sauna, spa pools, and aerobic and circuit training. All of the exercise programmes are run on a smaller scale than the ones offered by Fitness Plus. The centre also runs children’s holiday programmes and provides rooms for craft and cultural programmes. In addition, the North Perth Health and Fitness Centre provides meeting space and organises fun evenings on Friday and Saturday for local teenagers (these programmes are all partly subsidised by a local council grant).

While the North Perth Health and Fitness Centre’s present scale of operations is relatively small, it has an excellent location and there are a growing number of young people moving into the immediate area. A number of these people have moved to Perth to attend a local university and many others for employment opportunities. This influx of young people was creating a demand for the recreation centre’s training and exercise services that were exceeding the centre’s current capacity.

In order to meet the increase in demand, the board of directors of the North Perth Health and Fitness Centre has recently decided to expand the physical size of its building by utilising part of a large parking area it has secured from a local authority through a long-term lease. The centre plans to offer a larger weight-training area, additional aerobic and circuit classes, martial arts classes, a new restaurant and drinks bar, and crèche facilities for children of participating parents. It also plans to continue to offer the children’s holiday programmes as well as the fun evenings on Friday and Saturday.