What inspired EMF?
Before EMF, we were in the military (Wetton a Special Forces Navy diver and Freeman an Army military fitness instructor). From this background of elite military fitness and bootcamp/outdoor training, we came up with the concept of providing our military ideals of professionalism, good communication and cleanliness, coupled with high level customer service, to the gym industry.
We created a product that would cover every fitness level and every training outcome for a reasonable price. We launched EMF in 2013, and we now have eight clubs in Queensland, Australia that are up to 5,000sq m, with everything from weights to altitude training.
We cover every demographic and all audiences. We have women-only training areas, elite level powerlifting rooms and performance pools.
Can you tell us more about the concept and offering?
We’ve designed our clubs to offer a variety of training outcomes for both males and females in both everyday classes and performance classes, along with plenty of yoga, pilates and other lifestyle fitness options. We knew that kids are a major part of people’s lives, so including some kids classes and childminding services to allow mum and dad to train at the same time was essential to our success.
Tell us about your kids classes
We realised that kids are moving further and further away from having fit and healthy lifestyles due to the impact of their parents’ busy lives and also the growth in technology.
We’ve been providing kids classes at our larger clubs for years now and are proud to be opening our first EMF Junior gym in the coming weeks, designed specifically for children aged one- to 14-years-old. This exciting space will include engaging fitness classes, kids and adults yoga, Prama interactive functional movement classes, trampolining, jumping castle fun and supervised free-play on our Super Structure play gym.
The kids classes and new EMF Jnr gym provide parents with an opportunity to drop the kids off and go and train in our standard facility for adults.
What has EMF’s development journey been?
EMF began with a take over of a gym operator on the Gold Coast that was not progressing and wanted to focus on their more successful cities. Within 12 months we doubled its member base purely by adding a balanced team with great customer service. We then took over three more closing facilities and turned them around into well performing gyms.
We had always had the desire to build and design our own gym and we did so by building two gyms – our EMF Fitness Centre at Pacific Fair and EMF Performance Centre at Robina – within a six month period. These two gyms are very different from one another, which is what we always wanted to achieve, enabling us to adjust our model to fit different demographics and provide a multitude of training solutions.
Since this time we’ve opened two other performance centres – our 2,300 sqm meeting Coomera club and our club at Nerang, which is a huge 5,100 square metres. This is certainly our show piece and our most dynamic facility.
What most distinguishes EMF from its competitors?
We’ve always been leaders in customer service – that’s the cornerstone of our business. People come to train at EMF daily because of the friendly staff who allow them to escape from the stresses of work and life in a positive environment.
We partnered with Technogym due to the high level data management they provide through their technology systems and their unique performance training equipment. This alone has been a major factor in our success.
Are there any plans to expand?
Yes, we’re currently in the process of moving into the Sydney and Newcastle markets, along with some other exciting new interstate and maybe international performance centres soon.
We’re also pushing more and more into the performance fields and focusing on the athletes that are still amateur but who are trying to evolve into professionals, as these are the athletes of the future and need the best mentoring.
