sporting - Leisure Opportunities

INTERVIEW
Les Mills health clubs
use bright colours and
blown up graphics in
their exercise studios
model is to build a big group exercise
studio as the focus of our clubs,
but we are also big on gyms. I make a
point of having the best free weights
facilities in the area I’m in,” he says.
Naturally, the group exercise classes
are massively popular. “We do a lot
of head-hunting and we recruit rock
star teachers,” he says. “We also pay
really well – up to $150 per class, but
it works out financially to do that. It’s
much better to pay $150 for someone
that attracts 100 to 200 people per
class rather than paying $20 to someone
that only attracts 20 people.”
The design is also important. “It’s
vital to create a motivating exercise
environment,” says Mills. “High ceilings
and a lot of natural light helps.
You can’t always afford to build big,
beautiful facilities, but you can create
stimulating décor. We do a lot
with blown up graphics and we really
focus on our AV. Twelve years ago, we
started building cardio cinema, showing
music videos in the cardio areas
of our gyms. Lately we install up to
$1m worth of audiovisual equipment
throughout the clubs.
“One of the most common mistakes
club owners make is around
group exercise design – 95 per cent
of all facilities around the world are as
wrong as they could be in terms of the
The Les Mills
classes are
renewed every
three months
design of their group exercise studios.
We build them to be like medical labs
– small, brightly lit with white walls
and facing a large mirror. For a new
member walking in, it’s a very self conscious,
sterile environment.”
To illustrate his point, Mills tells a
story about a club he visited with this
kind of décor. “We were standing in
the exercise studio and I asked the
club owner, 'do you like to dance at
parties' He said, 'I’m a bit shy, so I
tend to dance in the dark, in the corner
of the room.' I said 'would you like
to dance in here' He looked around
and said, 'I see what you mean'. Next
time I went back, he’d dimmed the
lights and warmed up the colours in
the studio – it made a big difference.”
Despite the success of the Les Mills
health clubs, growing outside of Mills’
native country is not part of the plan.
“We won’t build clubs outside of New
Zealand – we have made that commitment
to our agents that we won’t
compete with them,” says Mills.
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Read Leisure Management online leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital ISSUE 2 2012 © cybertrek 2012