REPs Magazine Fitness Matters Issue 2 | Page 8

TRAIN EAT WORK GOOGLE’S CLASS CLASH TRENDING % 6 . 4 This year has seen the US launch of Reserve with Google, the mega-brand’s attempt to link Google Maps to existing exercise class booking services. Reserve mixes Google’s (intimate) knowledge of users with their detailed maps and crucially for REPs members information from existing providers, such as MINDBODY. Potential class members can search for ‘Pilates’, for example, view the options on a map, then book and pay on the same screen. Google aren’t offering any dates, but their US growth suggests it’s a matter of when, rather than if. The bottom line for REPs members is: if you run classes yourself or through a business, consider getting yourself on to existing booking providers. INDUSTRY BITES • THE WORLDWIDE HEALTH CLUB INDUSTRY GREW ITS REVENUE TO £64.6bn LAST YEAR, WITH ONLY THE US AHEAD OF THE UK’S £4.7bn revenue. 8 FM www.exerciseregister.org Fitness Clubs Growth (per year) • David Lloyd Leisure (DLL) grew to 109 clubs with the acquisition of The Park Club and 14 Virgin Active clubs, reinforcing Chief Executive Glenn Earlam’s declaration of his ambitious commitment to growth and making DLL the number one health and fitness brand in the whole of Europe’. The DW Group has appointed Martin Long as its new CEO. Long led the successful acquisition of Fitness First for the • DW Group in September 2016, a move that saw DW become the second largest operator of gyms in the UK Britain’s second biggest budget gym operator, The Gym Group, have said that the number of members who used its clubs more than once a week had risen by 21 per cent over the past five years, listing the growth of fitness feeds on social media and the low cost of their gyms as primary reasons.