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We Work Well Events | Fit Tech promotion
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features

HCM People: Duncan Jefford

Regional director, Everyone Active

Our vision is for all our centres to provide the widest range of wellness services, under one roof

Published in Health Club Management 2023 issue 1

You’ve had a shakeup of your gyms. What was the impetus behind this?
We’ve seen a fundamental change in the way people want to exercise and in response we’ve developed our fitness product to deliver an omnichannel experience for our customers.

These factors, combined with research into our customer data from the past 10 years, have led to the launch of our refreshed fitness offering.

Over the next 18 months we’ll be making changes within our gyms, studio spaces and wider facilities to deliver an enhanced experience for our customers.

How did you set the new direction for the investment?
With over 200 sport, leisure, gym and studio facilities nationwide and thousands of fitness users each day, we have the opportunity to analyse and optimise customer data.

When approaching this project, we first gathered and analysed 10 years of Gymetrix data, enabling us to understand customer demand and predict trends for years ahead.

As a result, we’ve fundamentally changed the layout of our fitness spaces, with an increased focus on strength training, free weights and functional spaces for mind, body and recovery. In addition, we’ve also slightly scaled down the cardio machines due to a year-on-year decrease in demand.

How much is being invested in the new builds and refurbishments?
Across the sites we’re refurbishing and opening as new, we’ll be investing £7.5m over the next 12 months.

What else has changed?
Our service is about bringing together equipment and environment to create a holistic solution and a real experience for customers.

Our changes in equipment have been accompanied by upgrades to the buildings and we’ve worked with GT3 Architects to refresh the interior design of our fitness spaces.

Depending on location, we’re looking to increase the size of our mind and body zones by between 10 and 15 per cent – with a bespoke design for functional fitness – to increase the size of the universal zones by between 35 and 40 per cent and the dynamic areas by around 50 per cent, with finishes inspired by Everyone Active’s brand colours.

These developments will be implemented during both refurbishments and in new centres in 21 fitness facilities across the UK over the coming six months.

You’ve also been launching your own boutique studios and taking on franchises. Tell us more
Our offering is more than just a workout and our vision is for all our centres to be at the heart of the community, providing the widest range of wellness services under one roof.


We’re proud to have developed several boutique sites across the Everyone Active brand. These offer bespoke exercise classes and spa facilities.

Boutiques include our Fortis concept, a boutique HIIT class in state-of-the-art studios that combines machines from Speedflex and tech from Myzone, to create a premium experience.

The Fortis concept – with its stapline of ‘HIIT without the hurt’ has gone from strength-to-strength as a club in club concept, with an eighth site opening in January at the Harpenden Leisure Centre.

We also work with franchises and tie-ups from F45, Cross Fit, Fight Klub and More Yoga, as well as virtual pool workout company Hyrdrohex (www.hydrohex.com) to deliver a range of boutique experiences at our sites.

Tell us about your new supplier partners
We’re working with new partners such as Peloton and Life Fitness to enhance our 360-degree wellness offering. We’re also launching a new cycling concept called EA Cycle, with two studios opening in Westminster Lodge and Harpenden Leisure Centre this month (January 2023). Our aim is to launch EA Cycle classes nationwide within the next twelve months.

Other new partners will open the door to providing wellness, recovery and stretching solutions within our functional spaces. This includes working with muscle recovery specialist, Therabody and medically-graded body composition supplier, InBody.

How important has digital been in this transformation process?
Our investment into digital operations and new partnerships has helped us advance as a business. Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve been forced to adapt and we’re proud to have used the opportunity to swiftly make improvements to our digital processes.

For example, we’ve developed a holistic approach to supporting customers, both in-centre and from the comfort of their own home.

In a period when people couldn’t visit our centres, we launched our digital product, Everyone on Demand (EOD) in 2020. The digital app provides the widest range of health and wellness products from a single operator, from traditional workouts to meditation to GP referral programmes. Customers get exclusive access to training content through EOD from suppliers such as EXi, Mindshine and Les Mills.

Financially, this move to digital exercise has been a profitable addition to the Everyone Active portfolio, as we currently have an audience of around 15,000 regular users through EOD each month.

Are you changing the way you engage with your customers?
Our digital transformation has changed the way we communicate with customers and with over half a million people using our Everyone Active app we regularly use this platform and social media to engage in real-time with customers.

In 2022, we utilised customer and colleague feedback to better understand changes in customer demand and the importance of building relationships with new and existing visitors to our facilities.

We found a gap in the market for interaction at the initial stage of sign-up, focused on building valuable face-to-face interaction with customers from their first visit and helping them understand all the innovative equipment we offer.

In November 2022, our fitness teams introduced new 45-minute gym support sessions to give new or existing customers an increased understanding of the wide range of equipment available. There are now five educational sessions available to all customers, including strength equipment, cardiovascular machines, free weights, functional kit and group exercise.

How are you coping with the increased energy bills?
We’re seeing significant increases in energy prices, particularly in facilities with swimming pools.

As a business, we’re focused on keeping people active in local communities through the winter months and are working with our local authority partners to do everything we can to prevent closures or reduced opening hours.

We’re also reducing energy usage through innovation, investment and educational campaigns and continually looking to ensure we’re optimising our operations through building management systems (BMS), including cloud-based BMS at sites where that’s possible.

We’ve also made investments in LED lights, motion sensors, variable speed drives, pool covers, etc. We work with local authority partners to make investments in PV panels, solar thermal and heat pumps.

However, when working on these projects we need to have a clear understanding of the requirements and outcomes for each, making sure the projected energy and carbon savings can be achieved.

What are your sustainability goals?
Leisure centres consume large amounts of energy, making them significant carbon emitters. As a result, leisure operators and local authorities need to prioritise new strategies and operational changes to tackle emissions and keep financial outgoings under control.

To achieve our longer-term sustainability goals, we’re proud to be working alongside our local authority partners, as part of our Net Zero Strategy (www.everyoneactive.com/about-us/net-zero).

For any leisure centre to achieve net zero, every facet of the operation needs to be reviewed and we’ve made decisions to ensure we’re tackling these challenges, such as hiring a group sustainability manager – Peggy Lee – who’s playing a leading role in advising on sustainability, as well as helping implement our newly-ratified Net Zero Strategy.

This year, we’ll be working to make our central support hub operationally net zero, through changes that include moving entirely to a renewable energy tariff and the removal of natural gas as a heating fuel.

This will be followed by step two – a commitment to decarbonising all ‘material and relevant Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions’ from our corporate operations by 2030.

Among alterations we plan to make are upskilling and engaging with support hub users and Everyone Active colleagues and changing all company-owned and leased vehicles to plug-in electric.

How can the industry convince governments of its economic and social value?
We need to ensure we’re delivering the highest standard of experience from both a service and community perspective.

We must work with industry bodies to showcase the value of our sector and the benefits we provide for a wide range of people when it comes to their health and wellbeing.

It was great to read Sport England’s Future of Public Sector Leisure report (www.hcmmag.com/FPSL) which echoes what we’ve been working on at Everyone Active. The report champions a transition from traditional leisure service to one which is far more focused on Active Wellbeing, suggesting we must evolve leisure services to meet the needs of modern users and help the sector move forward in a sustainable way, creating true community hubs that enable wider service provision.

Imagine a leisure centre where you can access multiple health and wellness experiences and services under one roof, from medical to spa to community health care and beyond. Where centres become ‘essential’ in supporting community services in all parts of the medical system, and where we build on the social value we know leisure centres are capable of delivering.

Following the development of the Social Value Calculator by 4 Global in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University, we can showcase the monetary value of participation in activity in leisure facilities. and the latest data from over 1.5 million of our customers shows a Social Value of £198m per year across our centres.

Our services have played a part in preventing thousands of people being admitted to hospital, through the reduction of health conditions, such as obesity, depression and type 2 diabetes, as well as delivering specialised support for people with dementia.

Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
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features

HCM People: Duncan Jefford

Regional director, Everyone Active

Our vision is for all our centres to provide the widest range of wellness services, under one roof

Published in Health Club Management 2023 issue 1

You’ve had a shakeup of your gyms. What was the impetus behind this?
We’ve seen a fundamental change in the way people want to exercise and in response we’ve developed our fitness product to deliver an omnichannel experience for our customers.

These factors, combined with research into our customer data from the past 10 years, have led to the launch of our refreshed fitness offering.

Over the next 18 months we’ll be making changes within our gyms, studio spaces and wider facilities to deliver an enhanced experience for our customers.

How did you set the new direction for the investment?
With over 200 sport, leisure, gym and studio facilities nationwide and thousands of fitness users each day, we have the opportunity to analyse and optimise customer data.

When approaching this project, we first gathered and analysed 10 years of Gymetrix data, enabling us to understand customer demand and predict trends for years ahead.

As a result, we’ve fundamentally changed the layout of our fitness spaces, with an increased focus on strength training, free weights and functional spaces for mind, body and recovery. In addition, we’ve also slightly scaled down the cardio machines due to a year-on-year decrease in demand.

How much is being invested in the new builds and refurbishments?
Across the sites we’re refurbishing and opening as new, we’ll be investing £7.5m over the next 12 months.

What else has changed?
Our service is about bringing together equipment and environment to create a holistic solution and a real experience for customers.

Our changes in equipment have been accompanied by upgrades to the buildings and we’ve worked with GT3 Architects to refresh the interior design of our fitness spaces.

Depending on location, we’re looking to increase the size of our mind and body zones by between 10 and 15 per cent – with a bespoke design for functional fitness – to increase the size of the universal zones by between 35 and 40 per cent and the dynamic areas by around 50 per cent, with finishes inspired by Everyone Active’s brand colours.

These developments will be implemented during both refurbishments and in new centres in 21 fitness facilities across the UK over the coming six months.

You’ve also been launching your own boutique studios and taking on franchises. Tell us more
Our offering is more than just a workout and our vision is for all our centres to be at the heart of the community, providing the widest range of wellness services under one roof.


We’re proud to have developed several boutique sites across the Everyone Active brand. These offer bespoke exercise classes and spa facilities.

Boutiques include our Fortis concept, a boutique HIIT class in state-of-the-art studios that combines machines from Speedflex and tech from Myzone, to create a premium experience.

The Fortis concept – with its stapline of ‘HIIT without the hurt’ has gone from strength-to-strength as a club in club concept, with an eighth site opening in January at the Harpenden Leisure Centre.

We also work with franchises and tie-ups from F45, Cross Fit, Fight Klub and More Yoga, as well as virtual pool workout company Hyrdrohex (www.hydrohex.com) to deliver a range of boutique experiences at our sites.

Tell us about your new supplier partners
We’re working with new partners such as Peloton and Life Fitness to enhance our 360-degree wellness offering. We’re also launching a new cycling concept called EA Cycle, with two studios opening in Westminster Lodge and Harpenden Leisure Centre this month (January 2023). Our aim is to launch EA Cycle classes nationwide within the next twelve months.

Other new partners will open the door to providing wellness, recovery and stretching solutions within our functional spaces. This includes working with muscle recovery specialist, Therabody and medically-graded body composition supplier, InBody.

How important has digital been in this transformation process?
Our investment into digital operations and new partnerships has helped us advance as a business. Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve been forced to adapt and we’re proud to have used the opportunity to swiftly make improvements to our digital processes.

For example, we’ve developed a holistic approach to supporting customers, both in-centre and from the comfort of their own home.

In a period when people couldn’t visit our centres, we launched our digital product, Everyone on Demand (EOD) in 2020. The digital app provides the widest range of health and wellness products from a single operator, from traditional workouts to meditation to GP referral programmes. Customers get exclusive access to training content through EOD from suppliers such as EXi, Mindshine and Les Mills.

Financially, this move to digital exercise has been a profitable addition to the Everyone Active portfolio, as we currently have an audience of around 15,000 regular users through EOD each month.

Are you changing the way you engage with your customers?
Our digital transformation has changed the way we communicate with customers and with over half a million people using our Everyone Active app we regularly use this platform and social media to engage in real-time with customers.

In 2022, we utilised customer and colleague feedback to better understand changes in customer demand and the importance of building relationships with new and existing visitors to our facilities.

We found a gap in the market for interaction at the initial stage of sign-up, focused on building valuable face-to-face interaction with customers from their first visit and helping them understand all the innovative equipment we offer.

In November 2022, our fitness teams introduced new 45-minute gym support sessions to give new or existing customers an increased understanding of the wide range of equipment available. There are now five educational sessions available to all customers, including strength equipment, cardiovascular machines, free weights, functional kit and group exercise.

How are you coping with the increased energy bills?
We’re seeing significant increases in energy prices, particularly in facilities with swimming pools.

As a business, we’re focused on keeping people active in local communities through the winter months and are working with our local authority partners to do everything we can to prevent closures or reduced opening hours.

We’re also reducing energy usage through innovation, investment and educational campaigns and continually looking to ensure we’re optimising our operations through building management systems (BMS), including cloud-based BMS at sites where that’s possible.

We’ve also made investments in LED lights, motion sensors, variable speed drives, pool covers, etc. We work with local authority partners to make investments in PV panels, solar thermal and heat pumps.

However, when working on these projects we need to have a clear understanding of the requirements and outcomes for each, making sure the projected energy and carbon savings can be achieved.

What are your sustainability goals?
Leisure centres consume large amounts of energy, making them significant carbon emitters. As a result, leisure operators and local authorities need to prioritise new strategies and operational changes to tackle emissions and keep financial outgoings under control.

To achieve our longer-term sustainability goals, we’re proud to be working alongside our local authority partners, as part of our Net Zero Strategy (www.everyoneactive.com/about-us/net-zero).

For any leisure centre to achieve net zero, every facet of the operation needs to be reviewed and we’ve made decisions to ensure we’re tackling these challenges, such as hiring a group sustainability manager – Peggy Lee – who’s playing a leading role in advising on sustainability, as well as helping implement our newly-ratified Net Zero Strategy.

This year, we’ll be working to make our central support hub operationally net zero, through changes that include moving entirely to a renewable energy tariff and the removal of natural gas as a heating fuel.

This will be followed by step two – a commitment to decarbonising all ‘material and relevant Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions’ from our corporate operations by 2030.

Among alterations we plan to make are upskilling and engaging with support hub users and Everyone Active colleagues and changing all company-owned and leased vehicles to plug-in electric.

How can the industry convince governments of its economic and social value?
We need to ensure we’re delivering the highest standard of experience from both a service and community perspective.

We must work with industry bodies to showcase the value of our sector and the benefits we provide for a wide range of people when it comes to their health and wellbeing.

It was great to read Sport England’s Future of Public Sector Leisure report (www.hcmmag.com/FPSL) which echoes what we’ve been working on at Everyone Active. The report champions a transition from traditional leisure service to one which is far more focused on Active Wellbeing, suggesting we must evolve leisure services to meet the needs of modern users and help the sector move forward in a sustainable way, creating true community hubs that enable wider service provision.

Imagine a leisure centre where you can access multiple health and wellness experiences and services under one roof, from medical to spa to community health care and beyond. Where centres become ‘essential’ in supporting community services in all parts of the medical system, and where we build on the social value we know leisure centres are capable of delivering.

Following the development of the Social Value Calculator by 4 Global in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University, we can showcase the monetary value of participation in activity in leisure facilities. and the latest data from over 1.5 million of our customers shows a Social Value of £198m per year across our centres.

Our services have played a part in preventing thousands of people being admitted to hospital, through the reduction of health conditions, such as obesity, depression and type 2 diabetes, as well as delivering specialised support for people with dementia.

Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
Gallery
More features
Editor's letter

Into the fitaverse

Fitness is already among the top three markets in the metaverse, with new technology and partnerships driving real growth and consumer engagement that looks likely to spill over into health clubs, gyms and studios
Fit Tech people

Ali Jawad

Paralympic powerlifter and founder, Accessercise
Users can easily identify which facilities in the UK are accessible to the disabled community
Fit Tech people

Hannes Sjöblad

MD, DSruptive
We want to give our users an implantable tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting
Fit Tech people

Jamie Buck

Co-founder, Active in Time
We created a solution called AiT Voice, which turns digital data into a spoken audio timetable that connects to phone systems
Profile

Fahad Alhagbani: reinventing fitness

Alexa can help you book classes, check trainers’ bios and schedules, find out opening times, and a host of other information
Opinion

Building on the blockchain

For small sports teams looking to compete with giants, blockchain can be a secret weapon explains Lars Rensing, CEO of Protokol
Innovation

Bold move

We ended up raising US$7m in venture capital from incredible investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Primetime Partners, and GingerBread Capital
App analysis

Check your form

Sency’s motion analysis technology is allowing users to check their technique as they exercise. Co-founder and CEO Gal Rotman explains how
Profile

New reality

Sam Cole, CEO of FitXR, talks to Fit Tech about taking digital workouts to the next level, with an immersive, virtual reality fitness club
Profile

Sohail Rashid

My vision was to create a platform that could improve the sport for lifters at all levels and attract more people, similar to how Strava, Peloton and Zwift have in other sports
Ageing

Reverse Ageing

Many apps help people track their health, but Humanity founders Peter Ward and Michael Geer have put the focus on ageing, to help users to see the direct repercussions of their habits. They talk to Steph Eaves
App analysis

Going hybrid

Workout Anytime created its app in partnership with Virtuagym. Workout Anytime’s Greg Maurer and Virtuagym’s Hugo Braam explain the process behind its creation
Research

Physical activity monitors boost activity levels

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have conducted a meta analysis of all relevant research and found that the body of evidence shows an impact
Editor's letter

Two-way coaching

Content providers have been hugely active in the fit tech market since the start of the pandemic. We expect the industry to move on from delivering these services on a ‘broadcast-only’ basis as two-way coaching becomes the new USP
Fit Tech People

Laurent Petit

Co-founder, Active Giving
The future of sports and fitness are dependent on the climate. Our goal is to positively influence the future of our planet by instilling a global vision of wellbeing and a sense of collective action
Fit Tech People

Adam Zeitsiff

CEO, Intelivideo
We don’t just create the technology and bail – we support our clients’ ongoing hybridisation efforts
Fit Tech People

Anantharaman Pattabiraman

CEO and co-founder, Auro
When you’re undertaking fitness activities, unless you’re on a stationary bike, in most cases it’s not safe or necessary to be tied to a screen, especially a small screen
Fit Tech People

Mike Hansen

Managing partner, Endorphinz
We noticed a big gap in the market – customers needed better insights but also recommendations on what to do, whether that be customer acquisition, content creation, marketing and more
More features