Enough of the doom and gloom; it’s time to look positively towards the future. We don’t need to remind everyone what a challenging time it’s been and continues to be, but there are plenty of positive signs that franchises can recover from the pandemic.
While the recent introduction of the ‘Rule of Six’ may seem a backward step, there are signs that consumer habits are returning to normal. This can be seen by the usage of our gyms which is increasing every month as well as the large amount of pent-up demand that has seen thousands of new memberships issued since reopening.
Open conversation with landlords
Further recent positive news is the extension of the moratorium to protect commercial tenants from evictions until the end of the year. This has provided some welcome breathing space while businesses get back on their feet and provides a platform for open and honest collaboration between tenants and landlords.
At Anytime Fitness, it’s been very encouraging to see our clubs reopen so successfully and throughout the enforced closures, we have been supporting our network in establishing healthy two-way conversations with their landlords on the best way to emerge from the pandemic.
As part of this, our franchisees have access to CBRE, one of the world’s leading commercial real estate service companies, to act as an intermediary between themselves and their landlords. Franchisees that have taken advantage of this have managed to devise collaborative long-term plans with their landlords, already making average savings of over 25% of rent due this year.
This has all been achieved through realistic and sensible dialogue and while many landlords were initially leaning towards forfeiting a lease and taking all rent due, they would much rather benefit from retaining a long-term tenant and emerging from the pandemic stronger together. We feel this is a valuable lesson to take from the pandemic and would encourage franchisees to be open and honest with their landlords to come up with a plan that benefits both parties.
Training and education during closure
Another positive is that all the time invested by franchisors to support their network is already bearing fruit. Some franchises like ourselves were unable to trade for an extended period and we took this time as an opportunity to provide regular education and ensure that our clubs were ready to reopen safely when given the go-ahead.
With everyone in the same boat, we delivered over 35 digital webinars during lockdown, hosted weekly Q&As with our CEO and delivered a wealth of additional support with training. This has helped increase franchisee sentiment and engagement with us as a franchisor.
Consumer confidence in their own safety was always going to be pivotal to reopening success and we can’t underestimate the importance of the time taken to ensure our clubs were COVID secure. Compliance was more important than ever to us and clubs were only allowed to reopen when we could guarantee the safety of returning members and staff, a decision we’d take time and time again.
Working with the wider leisure and fitness sector has been incredibly valuable and the new data regarding the safety of gyms backs this up. As of September, gyms and leisure facilities in England have had more than 22 million visits since reopening on 25 July and ukactive’s data shows that there has been just 78 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among its customers. Furthermore, none of these cases showed any specific transmission within gyms and have arisen where authorities have contacted facilities regarding a user with a positive result had attended a gym within a certain time period.
Support for locally owned businesses
For franchises that continued to trade throughout the pandemic, something else that has been beneficial is an increase in the general public’s positive sentiment towards locally owned businesses. The plight of local businesses has been well documented and it’s been great to see the public rallying behind them to keep them on their feet.
It has been incredibly sad to see businesses not survive the pandemic but if we’re able to try and take a small positive from this, the change in consumer attitude will stand the franchise industry in great stead in both the immediate and long-term future.
Entrepreneurial spirit lives on
We have been fortunate to be able to grow our network further during lockdown. There’s still a great appetite to own a business in the UK and as well as increasing our number of sites, have even branched out to a new territory in Jersey.
Franchising is very much here to stay and it should be seen as a real positive for franchisors that this interest is robust even in the most challenging of times. People have taken this time in some instances to reflect and reinvent themselves, with franchising giving them an accessible opportunity to go down a new career path.
I hope this helps show that there are still plenty of reasons for optimism right now. Franchising still has a bright future and we’re proud to be part of a sector that has continued to proudly serve its communities during this pandemic and can play a big part in their future.
This article comes courtesy of the UK’s leading fitness franchise, Anytime Fitness. It opened its first club in the UK ten years ago and is the world’s largest health chain with over 4,500 clubs open in 35 countries and growing. A new member joins an Anytime Fitness club every three minutes.
