Fitness centers' Christmas

The flood of customers who've made resolutions for the New Year challenge the staffs and facilities of fitness centers but January can be a make-or-break month for their owners.

Some have added staff, while others stretch their resources to deal with an influx of customers that's critical to financial success.

"This is a fitness center's Christmas," says Dee Dee Schula, owner of Sports West Athletic Club in Reno for more than two decades. "It is the biggest part of my sales."

David Gentry, manager South Reno Athletic Club on Gateway Drive, says he's added two new membership sales representatives and additional back-office help in anticipation of the flood of new and returning members.

South Reno Athletic Club typically signs up 40 to 50 new members in January, Gentry says, and also sees a large rise in business from existing members returning to the gym hoping to shed holiday poundage.

"We started staffing up in November to kind of get the ball rolling before the fact," he says.

South Reno Athletic Club hasn't hired any additional trainers to serve new members, but its staff of seven full-time trainers will be much busier, Gentry says. The club also will see maintenance costs rise as a result of increased usage on the club's equipment. To entice new members the health club waived its enrollment fees in January and February.

Simon Abittan, owner of European Fitness Center on South Virginia since 1985, says the health club also has waived enrollment fee for new members a step it hasn't made in 25 years.

European Fitness sees such a large rise in new memberships in the first quarter that the added revenues can carry the gym through slow summer months when new memberships dwindle as Reno residents gravitate toward outdoors activities.

"If we don't turn over big numbers it can get challenging in the summertime," Abittan says.

European Fitness Center put together a three-month television advertising blitz beginning in late December and hired additional service, membership sales and maintenance staff to keep pace with increased activity at the health club.

"You have got to keep the club up because there is even more wear and tear," Abittan says. "You have to make sure everything is clean and constantly check everything."

At Sports West, Schula says sales typically ramp up 30 to 40 percent in the first quarter, and daily usage spikes from around 800 to 1,200 members per day.

The additional and returning members mean Schula's large part-time staff sees a significant bump in their hours the first few months of the year. Schula increases front-desk help for better customer service, as well as janitorial help to keep pace with the increased usage.

The challenge for gym owners, says European' Fitness Center's Abittan, is finding ways to keep dues low enough that cash-strapped consumers reeling from holiday spending binges don't cancel their memberships to save money.

"We have never experienced this before people just don't have a lot of discretionary income, and health clubs usually are one of first things people cut out when they are have financial difficulties."