Gold’s Gym UAE, a member of the Al Ahli Holding Group, is part of the world famous fitness brand.
After two years of consolidation in the market, they have entered an ambitious expansion mode.
They have added five new clubs in the past six months, and are geared up to have 22 clubs operating across 14 locations by the end of 2014.
The man guiding their ever-upward chart is 36-year-old Nitesh Seebran, the South African Chief Operating Officer of Gold’s Gym.
Sport360’s Joy Chakravarty recently caught up with the rugby and fitness fanatic to find out more about their plans for the UAE and the region, and the way the health industry is developing…
Q You have been in the region for almost a decade. How have you seen the fitness industry evolve?
A In 2006, I was General Mana-ger of the first Fitness First club that opened at Ibn Batuta. It was around that time when the whole fitness industry changed.
Until then, it was more of a Country Club culture where you paid Dh20,000 or so for your membership. The industry decided that fitness is not only for the rich and famous. The average man also needed to get the kind of facility you get in these clubs, but at a decent, affordable price. That was when health clubs started to boom.
However, I feel it has changed again over the last two-three years. Now, everyone who has a bit of money, wants to open a health club. It’s diluted the market a bit in my opinion, meaning that you will find these small boxes in every corner now. My personal opinion is that these are not going to last for long.
You said that the market is diluted, but then you have a very ambitious expansion plan.
What I meant was that the market was getting saturated with too many smaller clubs opening. But as an international chain, we are getting stronger, and we will keep growing as we open more branches.
Take our Bur Dubai club for example. We have our friends Fitness First down the road, and we have about 20 smaller gyms. So, the customer is faced with a lot of choice. I think the bigger brands like ours will continue to do well because we are very focused on customer service, and we are in a position to keep giving the customers something new.
For us, customer service starts from the point when they are on the floor, our trainers are experienced enough to know they need advice, or are in some trouble with their regimen and need assistance, or they just needs to be motivated with a little talk. It’s not just about listening to their complaints, which is also important, but being proactive. In fact, I would say that the number one reason why Gold’s Gym is doing so well in retaining a large percentage of our members is bec-ause of the high level of our custo-mer service.
Tell us about Gold’s Gym’s plans for the future?
From the end of 2013 to now, we have grown by five clubs. We now have 14 clubs, including Ras Al Khaimah, which is yet to be officially opened, but is open to the public already. We have three clubs in Abu Dhabi, and the remaining 10 in Dubai.
Al Ain is about to happen where we have already signed our lease agreement. Al Ain is a massive, 60,000 sq ft club in the sports club, which is our first standalone building and comes with swimming pool and running track etc.
In 2014, Gold’s Gym will go into Al Ain, Sharjah and Fujairah. We are also opening our first non-UAE club in Oman early next year. And as for growth opportunity, we see great possibilities in Abu Dhabi, as well as in Sharjah.
How has the journey been so far for Gold’s Gym?
Two years ago, this kind of expansion was a huge challenge. We are a big, international chain. The UAE knew about us, but wasn’t completely aware. So we decided to do a huge branding exercise. It’s not like we spent millions of dirhams on this, but we tapped into the right resources.
We were very careful in where we wanted to go. Location is a key factor in the success in our industry. We did not want to go where our competitors were, but we looked at places with a large cachment of residential population. Our goal was to take Gold’s Gym to the people, instead of making them sit half an hour in the traffic and come to us.
I think our gym at Al Musalla Tower in Dubai is a great example. It is in the heart of Bur Dubai and is an extremely busy place. The energy level there has to be seen to be believed. We also decided to challenge the norm. We don’t have to be in the big malls all the time. Let’s go and open a Gold Gym in an office building.
Looking at the UAE market, you are second to Fitness First. Does that make you work harder?
We believe that we are the No1. Of course, Fitness First are giants and they have almost 40 clubs. But if you ask any member of my team, we work with the belief that we are the No1. If you are looking at the number of clubs, or number of members, then yes, they are ahead of us. But the clubs we are building are bigger than them. Our average club is 22,000 square feet, going up even more when we open Al Ain.
However, if you are saying that we are No2, that drives me, and the team, even harder… simply because we want to become No1. Our goal, until two years ago, was to open 26 clubs until the end of 2017. We are going to cross that number by the first half of next year. Now, our goal is to have a minimum 50 clubs in the region by 2018.
What is the biggest challenge that the industry is facing?
I think the biggest challenge right now is the rise in cost of rentals. It is not only affecting residents, it is affecting us as well. The cost of leasing has almost doubled in the past couple of years. We don’t want to go in a place with the expenses so high that we are forced to cut corners, and eventually damage the brand. Finding the right location is bec-oming difficult. And once we move into a location, we want to be there for a long time.
Staffing is another issue. You can get very experienced staff, but they have to be certified by the UAE REPS (Register of Exercise Professionals). And if a UAE based guy wants to join us, my first question is why do you want to leave your previous organisation?
And finally, what are some of the trends that you have noticed recently in your industry?
I think CrossFit has made a huge impact on the industry in recent times. Unfortunately, we do not offer CrossFit in Gold’s Gym as yet, because of space reasons.
The second noticeable trend is that ladies are becoming more and more conscious about their health and thus joining clubs to become fit.
But the biggest thing happening right now in the health industry is group training. Unlike personal training, which is a one-to-one training, this is a small group of people working out with one trainer.
Even in our clubs, we have seen that there is a very small percentage of members – perhaps less than 10 per cent like to take personal training – mainly because of the cost involved.
In group training, the price is drastically reduced. Also, because you are in a group environment, there is more fun and greater motivation to achieve your goals.
