Influences on UK Health & Fitness market Edexcel Pre-Release 2017

Market influences Social trends: Throughout western countries, and in developing markets such as China and India, the market for health clubs has risen This is part-economic and part-social The last 10 years has seen trends towards veganism, a move to organic foods and a huge move towards ‘free-from’ foods – all surrogates for healthier eating and living Health club membership is part of that Fitness and Leisure market 2017

Changing costs The direct costs of running a health club are trivial and overall running costs minor – but interest rates are important because the key costs relate to capital investment So the collapse in interest rates in January 2009 (effectively from 5% to 0.5%) has been a huge issue – lowering a major barrier to entry

Membership prices It’s hard to know what prices are charged by the different full-service clubs – or their trends over recent years … … but it’d be reasonable to assume that they manage to edge prices up in line with inflation … but of course we know that some will be switching from £100 a month to £15-£20 a month at the low-cost clubs

Market growth, but average revenue falling