CBE Interview: Gerhard Span celebrates 20 years of success at his two upscale Manhattan Fitness Clubs in Vienna

CBE: Congratulations on your 20th anniversary. How was Manhattan Fitness started? Do you have plans to build more clubs?

Gerhard Span: I had been a member of the national junior ski team until I was injured at the age of 19. After that, I became a skiing and tennis coach, and organised training camps in Vienna. As an athlete I understood the value of multi-functional training and wanted to open clubs where people could “train like the pros,” as in America.I worked with the Felsinger and Cerny families, who were in the construction business, to design and build a business model based on this concept in Vienna, which was new to Austria, and Europe, at the time.In 1989, we were the first in Austria to introduce a “pre-sale” of memberships before we opened Manhattan Fitness North, which is 8,000m2, and now has 4,100 members. We sold memberships in a temporary office housed in a trailer on our construction site. When the club opened, we had 700 members. Nearly 350 are still with us. In 2000, we opened Manhattan Fitness South, which is 7,500m2, and now has 3,150 members. What sets us apart from our competitors is our specialised knowledge of performance diagnostics, which is part of Manhattan’s fitness check-up, obligatory for each member. We did some market research on the potential for the opening of a third club, and found that it made no sense to do this outside Vienna. Our two clubs fit perfectly in the city today.

CBE: Did you celebrate your anniversary with special promotions or events?

GS: The Manhattan philosophy, which has distinguished our clubs since the beginning, is expressed through our slogan “20 Years of First-Class Fitness.”Rather than having bright spotlights, huge events or superstars, we have been sharing memories, having lots of good, personal conversations, and creating fresh motivation for our management team for the next 20 years. We did celebrate our anniversary with a birthday party on 14th October at Manhattan North, where we set up a small fitness exhibition and auctioned off lifetime memberships at our website www.manhattan.at.

CBE: What are the biggest trends in the Austrian fitness industry right now?

GS: In the past years, the number of members in Austrian fitness clubs grew at an average of four percent. Today about 430,000 Austrians go to fitness centres. The number of clubs, on the other hand, is decreasing. Nowadays, we notice a concentration of larger and multi-functional fitness clubs. Specifically, clubs of 1,000m2 or more have been increasing. Studios that are designed to target certain groups, such as women or health-oriented people, are also promising models.Also notable is the fact that more women have memberships in fitness clubs. While in the past, there were far more men than women, today it is 50-50. The fastest growing segment of the fitness market is 55-to-75-year-olds. In our clubs, the average age of our members has risen to about 45.



CBE: Now for an obvious question: How has the Austrian economy been faring? Has the recession passed? How high is unemployment, and what’s the outlook?

GS: Unfortunately, we cannot say the recession has passed yet. There are currently about 350,000 unemployed people in Austria, and experts say that there will be more unemployed persons in 2010.

CBE: You are the premium end of the market, with an initiation fee of e1,200 and monthly dues averaging e90. Yet your attrition rate is just 10% at Manhattan North, even in this troubled economy. How do you explain your success?

GS: Fortunately, Austrians tend not to cancel their fitness club memberships during economic crises. On the contrary, the results of a survey in 2009 show that Austrians would rather reduce their spending on vacations, cars or restaurants than on fitness. Of course, we are very glad about this, and it may be the reason why we had more than 700 new fitness memberships in 2009, a year of crisis.

CBE: In 2004, Manhattan was one of the first fitness centres in Austria to receive the seal of approval of TÜV Austria. Please tell us about this.

GS: TÜV Austria has an extensive quality control criteria, which covers all the important areas required for a safe and professional working environment, including membership contracts, personal trainer certification, and facility safety and cleanliness. We must go through re-certification each year, so our standards remain high. Only 15 fitness centres have this certification in Austria. Most are medical institutions.

CBE: You have seven doctors on your premises at Manhattan North and five at Manhattan South. What makes physicians want to work with your clubs?

GS: Twenty years ago, when I told people that I wanted to have doctors in our clubs, no one could imagine this. But our success shows how right we’ve been.We wanted to offer training in a most professional way, so we’ve had doctors in our clubs from the start. Our members need medical advice because they exercise primarily to stay healthy, not to win competitions.We also have physical therapists, masseurs and beauty specialists at our clubs who offer their services to both members and non-members.

CBE: Why do you have so much credibility with the medical community?

GS: One reason is that three of the seven doctors who opened their medical practices 19 years ago at Manhattan North are still with us. Also, many of our doctors and physical therapists are members, so they know our company from a customer’s point of view. In my view, working with doctors is the key to establishing your fitness centre as a multi-functional health resource.

CBE: On your website, www.manhattan.at, you mention five insurance companies that you work with. What special benefits do they offer?

GS: They are our partners. Their customers have the chance to obtain the Manhattan Fitness check-up and an individually designed training programme at a reduced price—which is good for them and for us.

CBE: You have represented the fitness and leisure industry in the Austrian Chamber of Commerce for more than 15 years. How has this benefited your clubs and the fitness industry?

GS: To be taken seriously in Austria, and have our voice heard in political matters, it was important to establish fitness as a branch of the leisure industry, which I am happy to say that we have done.

CBE: For the last four years, the national campaign ‘7 Days for Fitness’ has been very successful. In 2008, 40% of Austrian clubs participated and 70,000 Austrians visited clubs. Why has this event been so popular?

GS: People love this campaign because it gives them the chance to understand how fitness in Austria can satisfy so many different tastes. They can gain free admission to participating clubs during those seven days by signing up at www.manhattan.at.

CBE: IHRSA regularly holds the Austrian Club Leaders’ Meeting in various locations. As a long-time IHRSA member, what do you see as the benefits of these events, and of your IHRSA membership?

GS: IHRSA enables us to have an international exchange of views and to build an international fitness network. I think that IHRSA brings fitness clubs, educational institutions and the fitness industry together. No other organisation can do this.

Patricia Amend is the managing editor of CBE