The challenge, when you’re talking to someone about Inverclyde Leisure for the first time, is getting across the sheer extent of what we do,” says Kieron Vango, the leisure trust’s CEO since 2013. “We operate 10 leisure centres, numerous grass and 3G pitches, three sports centres, a golf course, an athletics stadium, three town halls, an ice rink, an indoor bowling club and an open-air swimming pool, as well as a number of parks and other community facilities.

“We’re involved in social prescribing and GP referral, working with partners such as NHS Glasgow & Clyde to develop products such as cancer and cardiac rehab programmes. In fact, this side of things is becoming even stronger for us as GP prescribing becomes more prevalent.

“We also have a strong children’s offering, with a climbing centre and soft play facilities, as well as parties, swimming, skating, football and other sports.

“In addition, we organise walking and running groups, run tea dances at our community centres, have a singing club and craft programmes. We ran a Walk to Beijing challenge through an app during lockdown, which we opened up to the whole community for free.

“Put simply, we’re working to target every segment of the community to drive activity levels. It’s why our marketing often focuses on the question ‘Did you know?’ It could be an educational ‘did you know’ about diet and nutrition, for example, or it could be about our products and services, highlighting a particular aspect of our diverse offering to whet people’s appetite for something they perhaps didn’t know we did. We’re continually pushing out information to the local community.

“It was this diversity in the portfolio that appealed to me in taking this job, as well as the chance of a fresh start and a new adventure; I’d been at Stevenage Leisure for almost 14 years and was keen to move somewhere a bit more rural: we now live five minutes’ walk from the beach, so I’ve taken up paddle boarding, and over the last few years fitness has become a way of life. I admit I used to be a bit sporadic with my training. Now, if I don’t get a workout in, I feel as though something is missing.”

Diversifying fitness
He continues: “When I joined Inverclyde Leisure, the outgoing CEO had left us in a financially strong position. The facilities were crying out for investment, but we had good reserves that allowed us to do exactly that. It was a great opportunity to invest in the product.

“We’ve now completed four redevelopments, with Ravenscraig Activity Centre our first in 2016. This facility was running at a deficit of £70,000 and was potentially going to be closed, but we worked with the local authority to create a rescue plan for about £1.2m.

“We partnered with Alliance Leisure and opened our first Fitness For Less gym, as well as a climbing centre and soft play offer. It’s now the second most profitable facility we run, so that investment has really paid off.

“Lady Octavia Sports Centre followed in 2018, creating another Fitness For Less and then at Boglestone Activity Centre in 2019 we created a similar offering to Ravenscraig. Finally, we developed a new premium gym offering at Waterfront Leisure Complex in January 2020.

“In all cases, we dramatically increased the size of the gym. We also stripped back the number of membership packages on offer: we’re only a small company and we had about 60 different membership options. I don’t think our team even really understood them all, let alone our customers.”

He continues: “The other very important thing we’ve done is diversify our offering, starting with our gyms which now operate under four distinct brands.

“Fitness For Less has been introduced into areas with a lower socioeconomic profile, with off-peak membership starting at £10.70 a month and going up to £18.99 for peak. We have three of these spread nicely across Inverclyde, so you’re never more than about 10 minutes’ drive away. We’re finding this model particularly appeals to the younger demographic.

“We then have three premium gyms operating under our Fitness Plus+ brand, where there’s everything from all-inclusive classes to the latest Technogym equipment with the Mywellness system, swimming pools and saunas, recovery areas and massage beds, as well as more staff on the gym floor. Membership costs £38 a month, so it’s still great value.

“Express Fitness is another brand, based on 30-minute circuit for those who want to come in, do their workout and go. We have two of these gyms, of which one is women-only. And finally we have Strength Shed, which is 80 per cent strength equipment and really appeals to the younger demographic.

“The facilities aren’t the only part of the business that’s benefiting from investment,” says Vango, “We develop our employees too, putting them through Chartered Management Institute courses, and our higher-level managers we put through degrees and post-graduate degrees. We have a professionally qualified organisation right the way through, with each area of the business having its own dedicated team.”

Boosting participation
“As a result of our investment and diversification, we’d increased our usage by 60 per cent by the time COVID hit,” says Vango, “growing from 1 million to 1.6 million individual users over the space of a year. Fitness accounted for 50–60 per cent of that. We’d also generated almost £7m in social value across our 10 leisure centres. [See Community-centric value.]

“We’re not yet back to these numbers since lockdown, but in our gyms we’ve recovered to around 80 per cent of our previous membership levels and have an NPS of 63. Other parts of the business, such as events, are coming back more slowly, as the pipeline is longer. But then we have some areas that are far exceeding pre-COVID performance, such as football – where we work with lots of local clubs and we’ve knocked it out of the park, if you’ll excuse the pun – as well as swimming lessons and birthday parties. Across the full portfolio, I think we’ll be up to 92 per cent of pre-COVID levels by the end of this year.

“And we’ll carry on diversifying, because we want to appeal to as many customer types as we can across a wide range of activities and fun experiences: our main objective is to get people active, whether that’s outside or inside.

“We took on a golf course during COVID, for example, which has proven very successful, giving us a new way to get the community moving. We recently ran a Warrior event too – an obstacle course race for kids on the Friday and adults on the Saturday. We had around 1,000 people taking part.

“Next on the list is starting to programme around personas, whether that’s active ageing or ‘ladies can lift’, or whatever else it may be. This will also be reflected in our marketing, addressing children, teenagers, adults, working adults, the young at heart… We want to try and get into each niche group to drive usage and activity even further across Inverclyde.”

Continued evolution
There are further plans to revitalise facilities too, says Vango: “Having started our Fitness For Less journey five years ago, we’re going to redevelop and reinvigorate that product to create an even better, even more on-trend offering.

“We’re also going to remodel our other two Fitness Plus+ gyms, having piloted new offerings at Waterfront since 2020. We’ll be enhancing the strength and conditioning zones, creating the persona-based classes I’ve already touched on, going up a level on lighting and customer-centric layout and adding body analysis, relaxation and recovery areas.

“We’re also looking to enhance what we do digitally, partnering with Technogym to stream class content to our gym floor equipment. It’s already possible on the treadmill, but it will roll out onto the bike too.

“This is definitely the sort of experience we want to develop in our premium offering. We’re also adding the Excite Live range with premium content and Technogym Ride at the Waterfront Leisure Complex.

“We’ll be embracing AI and apps to develop our customer journeys further, creating more of a personal feel for each customer. We’ve already worked on a programme for all our new members that, over their first 42 days, automatically sends out content that’s geared around their interests, whether that’s diet or exercise or health. This is content we’ll produce ourselves.

“The last thing we’re currently working on is the development of a new three-court tennis centre with a gym, soft play and café – once again through Alliance Leisure – and in partnership with the Lawn Tennis Association, Sport Scotland and Inverclyde Council. This is in the planning stages at the moment, but we’re aiming to do it in the next couple of years.

“And then looking longer term, one of our initiatives will be to develop our environmental procedures, reducing single-use plastics and working with the local authority to achieve Net Zero status. Many of our new builds are Net Zero, but overall we remain a big polluter. Reducing our carbon footprint in collaboration with our partners has to be something we take very seriously – all of us.”

Making a difference
If he looks back at his nine years with the business so far, what is Vango most proud of, I ask?

“I’m proud of the developments we’ve done, and I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved in terms of usage. There’s always a bit of a risk when you change things and I’m just so pleased with the results that have come from our diversification,” he says.

“Above all, though, I’m proud of the team and how they’ve grown and developed with the business and all they’ve achieved.

“We now need to keep the momentum going, helping even more people realise how vital health, activity, diet and exercise are. If we can continue to push that message and deliver experiences people want to take part in… well, we might only be doing it in our corner of Inverclyde, but at least we can make a difference here.”