Gyms are reopening across the country and that’s welcome news for fitness fans and franchisees alike.
Ty Menzies is CEO of Lift Brands which runs the Snap Fitness business in Australia. He tells Inside Franchise Business, “Snap Fitness is very excited to get their doors back open for the wider community, franchisees and teams. We all know exercise not only supports general wellbeing but our mental health.”
Australia’s gym reopenings began mid May in the Northern Territory and are now continuing across most states throughout June.
During the coronavirus lockdown, fitness franchises have adapated to home-based fitness regime, offering digital classes and signing up members to exclusive sessions.
Now the return to on-site workouts mean another shift in operations. There are important changes to make to ensure the health and safety of customers and franchisee teams.
Snap Fitness outlines new rules
At Snap Fitness, Menzies says “Capacity levels range from 20 per club, 20 per room and 100 per club depending on what state you live in, and of course abiding by social distancing rules.”
Staff need to be on site at all times the clubs are operating which means the normal 24/7 trading hours for Snap Fitness clubs aren’t financially viable, and hours will be adjusted.
When it comes to how many members can access the gym at one time, Menzies says some clubs, particularly those with a 20-person capacity, will offer a booking platform to manage the numbers.
Measures to ensure appropriate hygiene and social distancing at Snap Fitness clubs include :
- increased cleaning procedures
- equipment arranged and adjusted to enforce safe distancing
- additional self -cleaning stations
- removal or closure of high-risk areas such as showers, water coolers and fans.
- if in use, lockers are spaced out
ZADI Training is boutique
It’s a different challenge for boutique women’s gym Zadi Training. Founder Adalo Balto says the gym model has a premium offering which makes the reopening measures more convenient.
“Our model is built around a smaller class attendance ratio with max 16 participants. We simply have changed the capacity to 10 to be in line with government recommendations,” she explains.
“We have a Zadi app to handle all bookings and attendance records, we can easily sets capacity limits on bookings and monitor all attendance.