Franchise Awards 2020

Jan21046 Most TrustedWomen’s Fitness Franchise 2020 Curves is a dedicated and globally renowned fitness services provider leading the charge in adaptable fitness solutions during the pandemic. Curves is a business with almost three decades of experience under its belt in the fitness and exercise services industry. After opening its first club in 1992, a club specifically designed for women’s fitness in its equipment and training programmes, it quickly gained popularity until it had become one of the world’s largest fitness franchises encouraging women’s fitness worldwide. It is famous for its 30-minute full-body strength training regimen that works every major muscle group with combined strength training, cardio and stretching. It aims to offer all of this in a safe and supportive environment that always has a coach on hand to offer advice and answer questions. In this, it holds to its mission of promoting good health and confidence for women by improving exercise habits, forged by its company values of passionate service, teamwork, integrity, and community. Curves’ market proposition therefore allows it to cultivate an excellent atmosphere for its members. It currently has over 4500 clubs worldwide, present in over 76 countries, and is only over growing. Instead of thinking of itself as a network of gyms, Curves tends to think of itself as more of a club. Unlike a traditional gym environment, it focuses on getting to know each member as a friend and as an individual. A coach will always be on hand to assist them, and each staff member seeks to integrate themselves with the service users to encourage and support them. It also runs activities and challenges that bring enjoyment back into exercise, instead of having fitness be a constant slog. In this way it also facilitates the development of friendships between its service users. The pandemic has of course meant that Curves had to find ways and means to adapt. Being a mostly in person service provider and having its club shut its doors over the course of lockdown, it found challenges in the pivot. It focused its efforts on going digital, finding the difficulties manifested in ensuring it could provide its service users with the same amount of support and encouragement as it did in person. It has now successfully managed to convert to an operational model of delivering 30-minute strength training workouts completely remotely. It also now has a Curves app, developed to allow it to offer more of a comprehensive remote service, re-designing the way its members engage with Curves both online and offline. Its franchises all have the same ethos and driving mentality in common across the board, and even throughout lockdown it has strived to maintain this. It acknowledges that health is complex and governed by several individual differences and uncontrollable factors as well as the controllable ones, and therefore the tailored and personal approach is a cornerstone of its work. Within its industry it has also seen the outbreak have a significant impact. This has provided many hurdles in the macro scale as business could no longer be conducted as normal. However, it has also seen many more people turn to take advantage of home fitness strategies such as what Curves currently offers. According to research conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine and EuropeActive, strength training ranked the top fitness priority for 2020, and online training in 2021, both figures Curves are considering as it devises its future. This will allow its journey into the rest of 2021 to be a seamless one, providing support for its franchisees in terms of trend tacking, app training, marketing, and operational support across the board. Company: Curves Europe BV Contact: Joanna Dase Website: www.curves.eu After opening its first studio in 1992, a studio specifically designed for women’s fitness in its equipment and training programmes, it quickly gained popularity until it had become one of the world’s largest fitness franchises encouraging women’s fitness worldwide. It is famous for its 30-minute full-body strength training regimen that works every major muscle group with combined strength training, cardio and stretching.