20 Apr 2021
New franchise called Rise targets outdoor fitness market
BY Tom Walker
Outdoor workouts have become increasingly popular over the past year, as pandemic lockdowns – and subsequent gym closures – have made people explore their environments for exercise.
Now a new fitness franchise is looking to tap into this emerging outdoor exercise market in the UK.
Called Rise, the franchise will look offer organised workout sessions in parks, open green spaces and other community areas – including indoor venues.
Rise will combine the coaching experience of group PT with pre-designed workouts, "extra-curricular challenges" and heart rate technology.
Central to the Rise philosophy is improving people's overall activity levels and encouraging activity, even when customers aren't at a RISE workout.
An eight-week milestone plan features 50-minute progressive workouts designed to build fitness and confidence.
There's also an online element, which will be delivered via Rise's own app, offering personalised daily advice, motivational comments and access to digital workouts.
The venture is the brainchild of a team of fitness professionals – James Cotton, Andy Kay, Mhairi FitzPatrick and Carl Smith – whose careers include tenures at some of the UK's largest operators, including Anytime Fitness, LA Fitness and 370 Health & Fitness.
"Rise is a brand-new franchise not burdened by legacy systems or pre-COVID thinking, but created by Team Rise to fill an emerging gap in the fitness sector landscape," the founders told HCM.
"This means we don't have a load of locations to boast about or a million followers on Instagram, but it does mean early franchisees will get the pick of locations and the best deal to get into business quickly.
"Rise needs to be in the heart of the community. Because it has outdoor, indoor and digital provision, franchisees will be able to operate through the next major disrupter like COVID-19 that comes along.
"We will help franchisees through the start-up and, if they love tech, they will love our self-service approach that means they start generating returns quickly," they said.
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