{"id":449619,"date":"2020-11-18T13:50:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T11:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=449619"},"modified":"2020-11-18T13:50:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T11:50:59","slug":"virgin-active-gym-reveals-usage-patterns-post-lockdown-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/449619\/virgin-active-gym-reveals-usage-patterns-post-lockdown-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Active gym reveals usage patterns post-lockdown in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa\u2019s largest gym chain Virgin Active says it has recorded a ‘slow but steady member engagement’ with usage up to 57% since lockdown was enforced at the end of March, to combat the spread of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

The group re-opened its facilities countrywide on 24 August, although at a 50% capped capacity to start. That has since been updated to a spatial planning model that ensures social distancing, meaning that bigger gyms can facilitate more members.<\/p>\n

Virgin gyms boast in excess of one million members and are located in Italy, the UK, Australia, Singapore, and Thailand. The Southern African market accounts for 57% of clubs, and 36% of total revenue.<\/p>\n

Brait, an investment holding company<\/span>, has an effective economic interest in Virgin Active of 79.4%. The group noted in a financial report on Wednesday (18 November), that total revenue of \u00a3224.7 million in actual currency declined 50% year-on-year for the nine months to September, driven by the closure of all gyms due to the coronavirus lockdown.<\/p>\n

During this closure period, Virgin Active implemented a \u201cfree membership freeze\u201d, whereby memberships were retained without members having to make payment during the freeze period, resulting in no revenue generation for most territories.<\/p>\n

South Africa revenue of \u00a383.9 million (R1.7 billion), was down 51% on the prior year, Brait said.<\/p>\n

The group said that usage levels have risen gradually across all territories as member engagement increases. Total members are down 11% since December 2019 and active members down 33% with 25% of members remaining on freeze.<\/p>\n

Despite positive performance indicators, Virgin Active warned it is likely to take at least 18-24 months to revert to 2019 levels. A key concern remains the resurgence of a second Coronavirus wave and the restrictions imposed by governments across Europe, it said.<\/p>\n

For Southern Africa, total membership declined to 685,000 in September, from 740,000 members in February, while active membership fell to 482,000, from 734,000 previously. Gym usage has climbed from 7% in August, to 35% in September, climbing even further to 57% in the most recent audit.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Looking ahead, the group said it will focus on further improvement on product and member experience in addition to a digital offering – to be launched soon.<\/p>\n

Membership and usage pre-coronavirus to current<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Southern Africa YTD operating performance
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Read: Sale of Virgin Active delayed after gyms close due to coronavirus<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa\u2019s largest gym chain Virgin Active says it has recorded a ‘slow but steady member engagement’ with usage up to 57% since lockdown was enforced at the end of March, to combat the spread of Covid-19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":416129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[9725,26,5281],"class_list":["post-449619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-brait","tag-headline","tag-virgin-active"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449619"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449645,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449619\/revisions\/449645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}