2 February 2012: Leisure Connection, one of the leaders in the outsourced management of leisure, sports and the arts is bucking the trend and has announced an increase in like for like sales year on year for the financial year ending September 2011.
Leisure Connection, which manages more than 70 sport and leisure facilities and health clubs up and down the country has said it has seen a positive Like for Like growth of 1% in its fitness membership revenue in the year to September 2011. In addition, the multi-site operator has seen an increase of 6% in Like for Like sales of personal training. This has been attributed to the introduction of affordable personal training packages, which have offered communities up and down the UK the opportunity to enjoy personal and tailored fitness programmes to meet their individual health and fitness requirements.
Swimming figures across the group are up too, with Like for Like sales increases to the end of September of 24% in swim membership revenue and most importantly a 2% increase in swim school revenue
There are currently in excess of 26,000 individuals learning this important life skill with Leisure Connection. Private swimming lessons are up 13%, with almost 500 people benefiting from these each week.
The adult swim programme has grown by a massive 200% in 2011. This success will be built upon going into 2012 to ensure it meets the needs of the local community.
Overall, through developing the swimming programming to make it more customer friendly and promote more variety Leisure Connection has increased user participation by an average of 33%.
The delivery and development of swimming across its communities is something, which Leisure Connection prides itself on and in agreement is the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA).
Kate McKnight, head of facilities for the ASA said: “It’s great to see swimming – at all levels growing year on year. Leisure Connection is clearly very committed to the delivery and development of swimming at a local level. This is very pleasing to see and we are looking forward to working with Leisure Connection in 2012.”
Leisure Connection has also invested more than £1million into local health and fitness facilities in the past 12 months alone. The money has been spent on updating and refreshing buildings and facilities as well as investing money into the development of new programmes, staff training and reducing its carbon footprint.
Richard Millman, CEO for Leisure Connection says: “It’s encouraging to see our like for like sales rising despite the tough market conditions. We have achieved a successful like for like performance because of our focus on core activities, which are fitness and swimming. We pride ourselves on offering the very best value for money and programmes that people want to participate in. This is clearly mirrored in our performance as we continue to increase revenue but at the same time drive participation. 2012 is going to be an exciting year and we look forward to working in partnership with our clients to embrace the Olympic and Paralympic Games and encourage even more people to become more active, more often.”
As well as the sports and leisure facilities the company manages, Leisure Connection also operates a range of arts and theatre venues in partnership with its local authority clients and has seen a positive increase in local communities taking advantage of their community arts and entertainment facilities, with an increase of nearly 20% like for like sales for the year ending September 2011.
October has seen a continuation of the positive trend, with total Like for Like sales for the month for the company at +2.4%, with fitness and swimming sales at +1.8% and +7% respectively.
For further information, please contact Manifest Communications on 01132 429174 or email
lc@manifestcomms.co.uk.
