Jul 1, 2007 12:00 PM
Interview with Geoff Dyer, CEO of Lifestyle Family Fitness Inc., St. Petersburg, FL
Lifestyle Family Fitness Inc., St. Petersburg, FL, is projected to gross more than $100 million in revenue by the end of 2007. It has grown from seven clubs in 1999 to more than 40 clubs in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio.
Q: I want to get to where you came from originally. I understand you’re from New Zealand?
A: I’m actually from Australia. I’m from Melbourne, Australia. I came over here when I was 22 and got a job working as a fitness instructor in Oklahoma City making $100 a week and overstayed my visa and eventually got a job in Florida. But no, Melbourne, Australia, was where I was born. A better place than New Zealand.
Q: I hope I didn’t offend you by mentioning New Zealand.
A: No, no. In this business, I’ve learned to get to know and like a lot [of New Zealanders]. Phil Mills is from New Zealand. Mark Smith is from New Zealand. There’s a couple of other fellas from Australia. I feel very lucky to be in an industry where the Aussies and the Kiwis have been able to play a leadership role. It’s been exciting and fun.
Q: In launching your second campaign into fighting teen obesity recently I read that you battled with weight as a child. Did that help A) get you into the fitness industry and B) create this campaign of fighting teen obesity?
A: When I was in Australia at the age of 17, I weighed about 245, so I was an overweight teenager. I was reclusive and didn’t like sports because I didn’t fit in. It was just an awkward part of my life. The peer pressure going to school when you’re obese or fat, it just wasn’t a fun experience at all. I ended up joining a gym at the age of 18 and I lost all the weight in three months and realized what a great feeling it is to be fit and look right. So I came over to America, and I stayed in the fitness business and got a job as a fitness instructor because I enjoyed that experience, and I loved being around people. About two years ago, we sold about $100,000 worth of teen memberships. This board member joined our board and he said, “Geoff, what do you do for the community? I’m a big, big believer in giving back to the community.” And I realized we didn’t do a whole lot. We supported the American Heart Association or the Diabetes Association, but we really didn’t stand for anything. I felt that if there was something we could stand for, why not be an expert in the teen fitness area and make that our mission. First of all, it made sense because it was the right thing to do for the community. Second of all, it is the next generation of members. I remember that old IHRSA statistic: Someone’s five times more likely to join if they’ve been through your club than if they haven’t. Last year, we introduced our free teen summer membership, a two-month membership. And the requirement is the teen has to check into the club before 3 [p.m.] and leave the club before 5. They have to come in with a parent. The parent has to register them because they’re a minor. And last year, we had 2,200 teens go through about 36 clubs. This year, we’ve had about 4,000 register across 44 clubs. But we really haven’t started yet in North Carolina; the schools are just now getting out. So we think we’ll finish this summer with about 5 or 6,000 teens registered. It’s a fantastic program. Certainly, you lose that $100,000 worth of summer revenue, but you’re doing something that really is a statement to the community. We’ve had a ton of good press, TV, radio and newspaper. They all think it’s a wonderful thing to do. We are truly becoming an expert on teen fitness. We’re doing lectures. We’re going out to schools. The local governments are getting us to co-host special events. And the members love it. The teens have not been a problem in the clubs. They’ve been embraced by the members. Members come in with their teenaged kids. We don’t track how many join because I don’t want anyone to think it’s a sales generation program. The first thing it is a free membership for the teens. We’re pretty excited about it.
Q: You really target 12- to 17-year-olds in this campaign. How do they interact with the other adults or even the senior adults at your clubs?
A: If you ask someone in this company or a member what Lifestyle Family Fitness means, they’ll say it means everyone in the family fits in. We’ve got a heavy program with Silver Sneakers and Humana. We’ve got about 8 or 9,000 seniors that use our clubs. So why not go for getting the teens to come in? The good thing about the teens is they come in during the day when it’s slow. I like a club that’s busy and active. You walk in and the teens behave themselves. The members certainly feel prouder about the company because we do this. I haven’t seen a problem between a senior and a teen yet, so I haven’t seen any downside yet. It’s all been very positive.
Q: You mentioned group fitness and the emphasis of group fitness and personal training. Do you mean group exercise or group training? You mentioned Phillip Mills, founder of Les Mills. Do you use his techniques?
A: We do. We used BodyPump about eight or nine years ago. We really liked that. And then about two years ago, we chose to open up to all of the Les Mills programs. The reason being, in our board meetings, we always discuss what makes Lifestyle Family Fitness different from another club. Even month-to-month [memberships] is really not a differentiator because anyone can duplicate it. But what’s important is when a member goes from one club to the next club to the next club that they have a consistent experience. We feel that a world-class group fitness experience is a critical part of the club experience. When you look at it statistically, about 90 percent of the women that go into the club do group exercise. We want to be appealing to women. Les Mills programs are the best group fitness experience that you can provide. The programs are new every quarter. New music. New choreographed routines. The instructors love it. They’re caught up in it. It’s creating a new career path for our people to grow within that side of the business. We feel the Les Mills programs provide us an edge over other clubs that don’t offer that. As far as pre-paid groups, we’re evolving in that area but we haven’t really had a lot of success yet. Some club owners are having a lot of success. But that’s a big upside for the industry. If we can get groups of six, eight, 10 people paying $10 a head to be led by a top trainer through a group exercise pre-paid program in four-week periods, I think we’re going to retain more members and involve more people and get better results.
Q: What other purchases are you planning? Where else are you looking at to put Lifestyle Family Fitness clubs?
A: Unfortunately, we have a rule in the boardroom that until it’s a signed deal, we’re not going to speak about it. So I can’t actually disclose where the next trade area is that we’re going to go to. But we try to cluster our clubs. It’s easier to manage them and easier to market them. Right now, it’s safe to say that we’re going to continue to grow in Charlotte and Raleigh, NC, and continue to expand upon Columbus and then of course the markets that we’re in in Florida, which are Tampa Bay, Jacksonville and Orlando. There are no new markets that I’m able to disclose until we’ve executed agreements to open there. As far as systems development, we continue to spend a lot of money developing internal systems and we’ve got a few things we’re working on there and just going out and doing our job every day. Every day you learn something about this business you didn’t know yesterday. Keeping your ear to the ground and listening to your employees and listening to your members pretty much tells you what kind of a job you’re doing running the company.
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