DoNews reported on April 17 that Leke announced on the 16th that it would officially open the "franchise" model of the fitness studio. This model is aimed at finished monthly personal training (personal training monthly payment system) studios or fitness studios that plan to transform into monthly personal training, and franchisees need to meet the conditions of having a venue with a remaining operating period of ≥ 2 years and no historical financial problems.
As a fitness studio brand under Leke, FEELINGME has previously piloted this model in Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities, and at present, the number of stores with stores is nearly 30.
It is understood that the services provided by FEELINGME for franchisees include brand authorization, course content products, digital business tools such as Leke store housekeeper, traffic management, coach management and training, and daily operation empowerment.
At the same time, FEELINGME also promises to provide 30+ new customers (trial classes, etc.) in a single month, and supplement 100% of the supply chain of coaches, so as to provide more deterministic resource support for franchised stores with stores, so as to solve the most common problems encountered in the operation of existing fitness studios. In addition, Leke's open and mature digital middle platform system is also more valued by franchisees.
FEELINGME Shanghai Qiantan store is one of the most representative franchise stores with stores, and the store manager Yuan Wenyi previously worked in a hospital in Shanghai, and she and her friends are also running two personal training studios - in the second half of 2023, they have flopped into FEELINGME in the form of franchise with stores.
Yuan Wenyi said that the Qiantan store used to belong to another large chain fitness brand, but since last year, there have been business problems, and once "I don't know where next month's rent is", "after bringing the store to join, it will bring a lot of traffic and can get a more stable income than before." Users don't have to worry about being 'forced to order', and the experience is better. ”
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the domestic fitness industry has entered a new round of reshuffle and accumulation. According to the "2023 China Fitness Industry Data Report" jointly released by the School of Economics and Management of Shanghai Sport University, Three-Body Cloud and Wanbo Shandwick, there will be about 79,000 professional fitness venues in the country in 2023, including 36,447 fitness clubs and 42,177 fitness studios. In 2023, the average growth rate of fitness clubs in mainstream cities (including first-tier and new first-tier cities) will be 5.13%, the bankruptcy rate will be 14.07%, and the net increase rate will be -8.94%. In 2023, the average growth rate of fitness studios in mainstream cities will be 6.32%, the bankruptcy rate will be 13.71%, and the net increase rate will be -7.38%.
Large chain fitness brands have "exploded" one after another, and many fitness clubs have chosen to abandon the long-term card prepayment model and turn to the monthly payment and single payment model; for fitness studios, monthly personal training has become a hot topic in recent years.
These changes indicate that the long-term card prepayment model, which the industry has relied on for a long time but lacks strong supervision and is prone to misappropriation of funds, has reached an important turning point.
The change in payment method is only the first step, and more importantly, the overall operation model, user experience, coach management, course content, store operation and other more complex links will be changed.
In terms of payment model, FEELINGME continues the monthly payment model of the main brand Leke Fitness, with monthly personal training as the core product, providing users with more cost-effective and companionship personal training services, positioning is more subdivided, and the core rights and interests include unlimited personal training, courses at any time, free choice of coaches, full customization of training plans, regular physical test review, etc.
Ye Qingqing, deputy general manager of the city division and head of FEELINGME, said, "'Monthly personal training' can effectively increase the frequency of users' classes, and high-frequency exercise and accompanying personal training services can help users better achieve their fitness goals, which is conducive to improving the continuation rate. At the same time, the 'monthly personal training' model can alleviate the problem of delayed financial settlement, and the profit model is relatively healthy. ”
In 2021, FEELINGME had less than 20 stores, and nearly 200 new stores have been added in the past two years, covering 11 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Suzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, and Tianjin.
In fact, FEELINGME's growth path is also to copy the way of Leke Fitness—establishing a single-store model, opening direct stores in different formats to repeatedly verify the business model, opening franchises, and large-scale expansion.
The difference is that now that FEELINGME has entered the new city, Leke Fitness has formed a certain scale effect, and FEELINGME can take advantage of the brand advantages and supply chain advantages established by Leke Fitness for a long time.
Leke's strengthened layout of FEELINGME is very reminiscent of its growth target of "100 cities and 10,000 stores" proposed in July last year. Today, Leke relies on multiple brands to achieve growth, with five offline sub-brands, including Leke Fitness, FEELINGME Personal Training Gym, FitTribe Flying Kick Sports, YOGA POD Xiao Yu Pod, and emerging market brand Lightning Panda, with a total of 1,450 stores.
Tang Xin, General Manager of Leke City Division, said, "Our vision was clear from the beginning - to respond to the sports and health needs of 100 million people every day. The needs of different users are diverse and personalized, and they need a wealth of brands and products to meet, so in addition to Leke Fitness, we have made a lot of new attempts in the past few years, and the bottom layer is to make money from 'users to come', and insist on creating value for users. ”
ACCORDING TO LEKE, YOGA POD CURRENTLY HAS A TOTAL OF 7 STORES IN HANGZHOU AND SHENZHEN, SHAOXING IN ZHEJIANG, HUAI'AN IN JIANGSU, LUOYANG IN NANNAN, BAODING AND CANGZHOU IN HEBEI ARE ALL ON THE LIST OF CITIES WHERE LIGHTNING PANDA WILL OPEN STORES THIS YEAR, AND FEELINGME PLANS TO ACHIEVE THE GOAL OF OPERATING 300 STORES IN 15 CITIES BY THE END OF 2024.