easyGym

easyGym Basildon had been open less than a year when Covid-19 saw the doors close on its 1,000 members for four months.

The 7,800 sq ft gym, which opened in May 2019, is franchisee, Steve Breese’s first venture into the health and fitness sector.  He explains: “I’m a qualified accountant and spent most of my career in the motor trade, but a change in personal circumstances meant I could afford to take a change of direction in my career choices too.  Health and fitness is a personal passion for my wife, Donna, and I, so setting up our own health club was a perfect storm. We could have done without closing after just 10 months though; that wasn’t in the business plan!”

Breese chose to partner with Precor to fit out his gym due to the quality and choice of its fitness equipment offering.  He says: “The look and feel of Precor’s equipment made it stand out to me as the best choice for my members.  Plus, we wanted to appeal to as wide a variety of people as we could; from hardened gym goers to complete newbies. The Precor kit feels good to use and there’s plenty of choice - something for everyone and it’s accessible to all. When we opened, our staff, our members and even our competitors who came to take a look, were impressed with the range and quality of fitness equipment on offer.

“The competitors were quite open about it. Basildon was underserved when we were planning the club, but a large national gym chain opened half a mile away just a month before we did.  The manager, assistant manager and three Personal Trainers, came in uniform and asked to look around. It was quite amusing to watch the PTs asking why their club didn’t have certain pieces of gym equipment that we do!  Even the more specialised bodybuilding gym owners said we had a really good range of kit.  From the street our gym doesn’t look as big as it is, so there’s definitely a lot more equipment than people expect to see.”

Being his first gym, Breese valued the support his Precor team gave throughout.  He says: “The installation team were brilliant. I could not believe how quick and easy it was - we opened the very next day!  We had an equipment plan, but Precor improved it during installation, moving things slightly so there was adequate space between the machines and ensuring the whole gym flowed properly. They also did their own quality control review, where they picked up things, I’m sure I would have missed! Everyone was very complimentary about final lay out.

“The Precor team have been very responsive, friendly and helpful to any follow up queries we’ve had since too.  There’s been someone on site in no time at all.  Due to Covid-19 we’re still in our 12 month warranty period - as Precor kindly extended that during lockdown.  Nothing appears to be too much trouble and we’ve had virtually no downtime with the equipment so far, which is great, because there’s nothing worse than kit being out of action for days or even weeks, in my opinion.”