FIT FOR PURPOSE

Jetts Fitness shows why it pays to listen to customers.

Gym group attributes its growth to listening to what

members value, and keeping it simple.

Can you remember a time before 24/7 gyms? The concept of all-hours access and no lock-in contract memberships has effectively revolutionised the Australasian fitness landscape.

One of the key brands to bring about this transformation is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

From humble beginnings on the Gold Coast, Jetts Fitness now has 214 gyms in Australia and 63 globally, catering for more than 200,000 members – success CEO Elaine Jobson attributes to the importance of listening to members.

“Other chains were losing sight of what the member really valued, then Jetts emerged with an opposite-end approach and ultimately set the tone for the biggest movement in the history of the Australasian fitness industry,” she says.

“Ten years on and more than 200,000 members later, Jetts is still centred entirely around its members and is committed to not losing sight of the most important thing – the customer.”

It all started when husband-andwife team Brendon and Cristy Levenson established the business, naming it after their son Jett.

Proving that a university drop-out can find success as an entrepreneur, Brendon used a loan from his grandmother to start a personal-training business when he was in his 20s. The next step was to buy a gym and begin developing the blueprint of what today is an international business.

“If you create and maintain an outstanding value proposition for your customer, which also works commercially, then you have the foundations for a great company,” he said in 2012 when he was awarded the Ernst & Young Emerging Australian Entrepreneur of the Year title. The previous year the fitness chain had been listed in the BRW Fast 100 compilation for its speedy growth, coming in at second place.

At the time, Levenson said memberships and franchise uptake had skyrocketed because cash-conscious consumers were too time-poor to make use of traditional gyms. “The value proposition has not only paid off by giving members more freedom, but every franchise has been returning profits, on average after just three months in business.”