April 2024 Club of the Month, presented by ABC Fitness:
Fitstop, Brisbane, Australia, est. 2015
To open the first Fitstop location, Peter Hull, the founder and managing director, and his wife Rebecca sold her car. Ever since, Fitstop has been dedicated to serving and bringing together members to achieve athletic success. With almost 150 franchise locations around the world today, collaboration and excellence remain at the forefront of everything the club does.
Below, Jeff Provians, the business performance coach, and Dani Carpenter, the operations executive, details how Fitstop inspires determination and empowerment within members who then pay it forward to their communities.
What is the mission of Fitstop?
Dani Carpenter: Fitstop attracts the everyday athlete — those people in the community looking to level up their performance, get back to their sporting roots or feel part of a game-changing team environment. More than this, Fitstop’s brand commitment is to move more to live more. Training at Fitstop helps improve your life outside of the club.
How would you describe the culture at your gyms?
DC: Our culture is very member and community centric. We encourage our owners to become the mayors of their community and create a tight-knit network at their locations. Our members have gone on to create friends for life and win races, marathons and events as a team they never could have imagined entering in. They’ve gone on to open Fitstop locations themselves. Fitstoppers start strong and finish together while cheering each other on. That culture is reflected in our workouts and challenges.
How do you use ABC Fitness to engage with members?
Jeff Provians: ABC GymSales is imbedded in both our pre-open and existing location sales strategies which is inclusive of reengagement, retention and nurturing journeys. Key touchpoints from the moment a lead interacts with our website to when they celebrate their third year as a member in our community and everything in between is mapped out to ensure every person is met with a uniform experience.
How has ABC Fitness’ ABC GymSales helped Fitstop achieve global growth?
JP: We’ve been able to implement the lead and member journeys we’ve developed with the support of the ABC GymSales team and refine it for the global markets immediately meaning a seamless pre-open journey for our international business owners.
Last year, you opened your first location in the U.S. How is the U.S. location performing compared to your Australian locations? What have you learned from entering this market? Do you have plans to open more locations in the U.S.?
DC: Our Santa Monica, California location is one of our top performing locations in the network. It has shown us the opportunity there is in the functional fitness space in the U.S. Off the back of its success, we’ve been able to open an additional two locations — another in California and one in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Our fourth U.S. location will be opening shortly in San Diego, California. Stay tuned.
What is a trend you’re seeing in the fitness industry that other operators should keep on their radar?
JP: No matter the advancement in technology, there’s still a need for authentic and personal connection. The opportunity for all of us is to continue elevating our processes with platforms, such as ABC GymSales, and leveraging its entire capacity to provide members the best experience possible.
Created in partnership with ABC Fitness. Visit abcfitness.com for more information on how they can help your fitness business.
