Another gym "ran away" overnight.
On the evening of April 30, SPACE, which is positioned as a boutique high-end gym, issued a "Notice" to members and property owners, announcing that all its stores will cease operation from May 1, and the company will enter a state of liquidation in accordance with the law. On May 1, the property owners of stores including Beijing Guomao SPACE issued a notice announcing the closure of stores. According to the announcement, SPACE's choice to close the store for liquidation was a unanimous decision made by the company's shareholders.
It did happen very suddenly. On April 25th, the "Space Music Fitness" official account also released a recruitment and preferential push - members can give a friend a Space course, if a friend becomes a new member and buys an official membership of 4000 yuan - 7000 yuan, the referrer can get 4 Space courses.
High-end gym Space "ran away" overnight
According to Blue Whale News, unlike many traditional gyms that have traces to follow, Space's closure can be called a "cliff-like closure".
According to many members, on April 30, Space was still in normal classes, but I didn't expect to issue a closing announcement in the evening. The coach was still in class that day, and he was still planning the May Day class, but he didn't expect it to go out of business overnight. Sally, a member of Space Beijing International Trade Store, still feels incredible, so far she still has more than 20 class hours of class bags that have not been consumed, worth more than 5,000 yuan, "But my loss is already small, we have many annual card users in the rights protection group, and the worst member has just opened the annual card for less than three days, with a loss of tens of thousands." ”
According to Sanlian Life Weekly, on the night of April 30, the "rights protection group" organized by members was quickly established, and some members made excel sheets to collect everyone's basic information and losses. In Beijing, for example, more than 1,000 people filled in the specific amount of losses, ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands. Lily is a five-year member of Space, and her card is automatically charged every month, just a few days before for the next month, with only two classes. Nothing loses more than the kind of members who have just prepaid their annual pass and have not yet opened it.
Lily said that she is not a person who is willing to buy a card to recharge consumption, especially after the epidemic, many stores are closed, and the merchants who run away go to hollow out, there is no way at all, but she is willing to apply for a card in Space, the reason is that Space's class bags and monthly card settings are relatively reasonable, and there is not much pressure on thousands of dollars. If you don't use it up within the validity period, you can also book a lesson for other members in the Space group. Member Edde also mentioned that she has a group dedicated to Advent courses. It can be said that Space's classes are hard currency that can be directly realized among members, and temporary classes are only 10-20 yuan cheaper than normal classes.
Bonnie has been a member of Space for six years. In Bonnie's impression, the annual pass is not the main feature of Space, but just a month before the collapse, many members mentioned that Space is vigorously promoting the annual pass, and the discount is very attractive, so there is a situation where many people have not yet opened the annual pass. This is where many activists are most angry, and they harvested the last wave of leeks before they went bankrupt.
Because Space is known as the "ceiling of group classes" and has many fans, it is difficult for many members to find a replacement for Space's services in the short term, "so it feels like being broken up by a cliff", and many people on social media described the Space run away as a "cliff-like closure".
According to the notice letter of the International Trade Mall, the mall also received a notice on April 30 that "Spessie's unilateral suspension of operating stores and termination of the lease contract is a serious breach of contract, which has caused huge losses to our company......
According to a number of interviewees, Taikoo Hui and other shopping mall properties currently provide windows for members to register their relevant information, "When we registered, some teachers were also registered on the spot, and they were also owed wages by Space." ”
Positioning in high-end fitness, Wu Yanzu has invested
According to the data, Space was founded in 2015 by Matthew Allison (Matthew), the former founder of Sony Music in Taiwan and China. Matthew founded SpaceYoga in 2005 and reorganized it in 2015 at the age of 50, creatively combining music with spinning. From 2016 to the present, Space has opened 8 offline stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, and Hangzhou. Every time a new store opens, there are many celebrities as its platform, and Wu Yanzu was also one of the investors in this gym.
In 2018, Space announced the completion of a 100 million yuan Series B financing, led by Alibaba's Taiwan Entrepreneurs Fund. Before the epidemic, with the blessing of financing, Space has been making great progress, and Winshang.com has reported that Space has a 10-month return on investment at the Sanlitun venue in Taikoo Li, Beijing, a 5-month return on investment at the Beijing International Trade Center Phase 3 venue, and a two-month return on investment at the Taikoo Hui Shanghai venue.
The Space store includes not only spin bikes, but also ballet, yoga and dance combined with music. Compared to the machine-based gym, Space focuses on the "fitness content" of group exercise classes, with most classes lasting 45 minutes to 1 hour. Space is positioned as a mid-to-high-end fitness company, with middle-income people between the ages of 25 and 45, with a stable life, a high income, a lack of exercise, and a desire to become beautiful and handsome. In addition, Space has set up a dedicated music curatorial department to provide music materials to coaches.
But now it seems that the explosion of space may have given a foreshadowing. In 2022, Space Shanghai Ganghui Hang Lung store closed, at the end of October last year, the Space store in Hangzhou Hubin Yintai closed, and in January this year, the store in Shanghai Xintiandi closed.
The epidemic period is a test for the cash flow of offline venues, especially Space, because its locations are concentrated in trendy landmarks in first-tier cities, and high rents are also one of the objective reasons for its closure, especially some venues are obviously not profitable, but they are still not closed.
In 2016, Space's first store was stationed in Taikoo Li, a trendy landmark in Beijing, with an area of 900 square meters, and stars such as Zheng Kai and Ji Ke Junyi came to help. At present, almost all of Space's stores are concentrated in the core business districts of Beijing and Shanghai. Unlike Super Orangutan who does not have a bathing space to save costs, Space has a good environment and large space, providing shoes and bathing, and the member experience is excellent.
These seemingly attractive elements have actually invisibly pushed up the cost of Space, Space is also more mid-to-high-end, with a single lesson fee of 100-200 yuan, mainly in the monthly payment model, compared with the unit price of 80-100 yuan for super orangutans, although Space is positioned in the high-end but not "unattainable". From this point of view, the Space's ping-efficiency ratio is not high.
Source: Daily Economic News, Comprehensive Blue Whale News, Sanlian Life Weekly, etc