Lockdowns and Brexit offering opportunities
NZ exercise giant leads the way in the new world of trade and Covid. Melanie Carroll reports.
As residents in the United Kingdom and other countries hunker down for a bleak winter, some New Zealand businesses are profiting by making life a bit easier for them.
One of those is exercise giant Les Mills, whose on-demand, at-home workouts have boomed in popularity since Covid-19 either closed gyms, or at least made people more wary of shared spaces.
The workouts require no equipment, and customers can stream the classes to their TV. There is also an active online community.
Scottish teacher Lindsay Robertson joined up in March, having already become fed up with her crowded local Les Mills gym.
‘‘The gym was so popular I had to wake up and book at midnight the week before to get a spot – madness!’’
She joined Les Mills On Demand (LMOD) in March, and as an anorexia survivor said she found the classes built up her confidence and ability to socialise, as well as exercise. The Facebook group was a source of support and a safe space to show her progress, Robertson said.
‘‘I exercise more now than I have for years. It’s cheaper than my gym and I get much more from it. I can honestly say I will never enter another gym again.’’
In locked-down Ontario, Canada, serious gym-goer Ghadeer Balsheh joined LMOD in August. Her local gym shut down in March, but provided access to a temporary LMOD site with a few Les Mills classes.
‘‘Never did I know Les Mills existed prior to that,’’ she said.
‘‘I was a religious gym-goer prior to gyms closing. The types of workouts I used to do were nothing like the Les Mills workouts.’’
The most positive thing for Balsheh was the convenience.
‘‘My gym currently is closed, but they did open once a few months ago. I didn’t end up going back when they opened because it was too risky.’’
Les Mills global marketing director Kim Walbridge said the company revised its expectations for LMOD during the first lockdown in March and April, when demand for at-home workouts jumped.
‘‘Since then, our ability to attract new subscribers – and just as importantly keep them – is outperforming even these upwardly-revised expectations,’’ Walbridge said.
There had been a clear correlation between lockdowns and growth in people signing up to LMOD, particularly in the UK and United States.
‘‘Daily sign-ups to LMOD in the UK have trebled since Boxing Day,’’ he said.
‘‘This is partly due to the country going back into lockdown, but can also be attributed to our promotional activities around the post-Christmas high season.’’
Covid-19 had turbocharged the digital fitness market, and consequently the tech giants such as Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook were muscling in, he said.
Rivals in the UK included Peloton, FITT and British fitness coach Joe Wicks’ The Body Coach.
‘‘The competition gets fiercer every day, so we constantly have to innovate to try to stay ahead.’’
It had been a tough year for everyone in the fitness industry, Walbridge said.
Trying to help instructors and clubs stay in business during the pandemic had hit sales and revenue in its core licensing business, but the company was positive about its outlook.
‘‘After months of isolation for much of the world’s population, people are craving connection more than ever, so we’re expecting our core club and instructor business to come back strongly postpandemic, much as we’ve seen here in New Zealand,’’ he said.
‘‘At the same time, the home fitness market is undoubtedly here to stay.’’
Export NZ executive director Catherine Beard said any company that made life easier for people working from home would benefit.
‘‘Les Mills is a good example of this,’’ Beard said. ‘‘Anything that has potential health benefits will be having a fairly good ride at the moment.’’
However, companies that did not have a presence and relationships before the coronavirus pandemic would find it difficult to break into a new market, unless they had a compelling, clear-cut business case.
Exporters would hopefully find postBrexit UK an easier nut to crack than previously.
‘‘With the UK developing its own independent trade policy . . . certainly it’s talking a big talk about being open to trade and wanting to do high-quality, bestpractice trade agreements,’’ Beard said.
‘‘Hopefully we see a lot of tariff reduction, typically on food and beverage. Digital barriers to entry are a bit more subtle, they could be around privacy.’’
Digital exporters which complied with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), considered the world’s toughest data protection law, would find it easier to enter other markets, she said.
The challenge was not so much keeping existing relationships, but developing new ones from a distance if borders remained shut.
‘‘A lot of businesses would find new connections through trade shows and get that exposure,’’ Beard said.