Information AboutFitness First |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT FITNESS FIRST | |
| exercise | |
| health clubs | |
| leisure companies of the united kingdom | |
| companies formerly listed on the london stock exchange | |
Fitness First is a chain of Health Club s in the United Kingdom , Europe , Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. In 1993 Mike Balfour and Christopher Pearce opened a health club in Bournemouth , England . Within the next three years, six more clubs had been built and Fitness First became the first health and fitness company to float on the Alternative Investment Market . It is now in 15 countries with over 500 clubs servicing over 1.2 million people. In 2003 Fitness First was taken into private ownership with Cinven, one of the leading UK private equity houses as majority shareholder. Because it was first set up in Bournemouth, the company director decided to sponsor the new AFC Bournemouth stadium, giving it the name the Fitness First stadium, though the ground retains the name Dean Court from the old stadium. In Australia, Fitness First took over a number of Living Well locations owned by the Hilton Group. Also they bought the 11-gym Healthland chain from an administrator, and now own over 60 gyms across Australia.http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/Gym-junkies-turn-iron-into-gold/2005/02/04/1107476799118.html In late 2006, Fitness First reached the milestone of 500 clubs world-wide, marked by the opening of the fourth club in Sydney, Australia .http://www.ausleisure.com.au/December%202006.html#11/12/2006 They also have over 1 million members worldwide. Fitness First is an aggressive sales company that revolutionised the way the fitness industry thought about targeting new members. They have many different membership types from Weekend workouts to Full memberships and offer a no joining fee, save £100, as their main campaign. However, recently changed this to from just £5 a week adverts in May 2007 for a short period of time. The structure of Fitness First is that all clubs are owned by Fitness First. Their Head Office, internally called the Support Center, is based in Poole Dorset, where they have the Member Services, Credit Control, and other admin teams for club use only. A typical club has a General Manager, a Health and Fitness Manager, a Studio and Events Manager and a Member Services Manager who run each department of sales, fitness, studio and reception. Fitness First changed their slogan to Fitness First for every body trying to suggest that they would help all types of people achieve their goals. This was at the same time as the release of the Get Results program which promises results as long as you attend 3 sessions per week and follow the program. They later in 2007 teamed with BUPA to offer higher standards of Health Checks where members can follow their journey online as well as in club on the Get Results program only. With the release of the Get Results program there was a New You Awards that celebrated members achievements. However in many clubs this was not a huge success with only just over 1000 entries in the UK in 2006. Fitness First's main competitors are the highly acclaimed David Lloyds, Living Well, Next Generation and Cannons. Although Fitness First started out as a good value for money company, many other health clubs have started to reduce monthly costs and Fitness First have been forced to increase the cost with increasing overheads, meaning that with a highest price of around £40 (July 2007) these prices are similar to those of Cannons and Greens, health clubs offering pools, whereas many Fitness First clubs don't. Fitness First use the Insights program (matching personalities to colours) to distinguish management styles of their employees. Fitness First appear to promote the employment of the RED colour, which is similar to that of a Taylor X manager. However, many new managers are not typical RED colour, but seem to quickly fit to the Fitness First credentials, while maintaining their original colours. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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