Weight-loss medications, data and AI offer significant opportunities for fitness operators, but also raise challenges around education, commercial partnerships, security and member relationships, according to speakers at W3Fit in Malta, which is currently taking place in Malta.
The panel, The Fork in the Road, was moderated by operator turned consultant, Justin Musgrove, and featured Anders Carlbark, CEO of Swedish operator STC; Nicole Nason, director of international franchise development at Gold’s Gym; and Myzone founder, Dave Wright.
Musgrove highlighted the commercial opportunities surrounding GLP-1 medicines, with operators such as Life Time already incorporating weight-loss medication into clinical services alongside personalised fitness programmes.
For Carlbark, the growth of treatment creates an opportunity for gyms to deliver exercise support alongside healthcare providers. STC is exploring partnerships, but he argued that operators must secure a fair return for their contribution to patients’ success.
“We’re getting approached by a lot of different partnerships, but they’re not really here to give us a fair share. It’s more a referral code, or maybe we’ll convert some members for them. That’s what we’re not going to accept,” he said. “We need to be sure that we’re getting paid for that type of partnership.”
Preparing staff to support members appropriately and establishing where responsibility sits between the operator, trainer and prescriber are key challenges. Carlbark said those responsibilities must be agreed before a partnership begins.
Nason highlighted the difficulty of establishing a consistent approach across countries with different legal frameworks. She also drew parallels with her experience of members following bariatric surgery, recalling people arriving for exercise having been unable to eat enough and passing out. She cautioned that reduced food intake and tiredness could also mean some GLP-1 users exercise less, rather than increasing their activity as operators might anticipate.
“In order for us to be safe, successful, and make sure that our members have access to resources, we need to rely on our education partners,” she said.
Musgrove’s takeaway was “education, education, education”, arguing that the sector needs to catch up with changing member needs.
Technology
Carlbark expects AI to enable expansion with a lower head-office cost base, freeing resources for clubs and member experience. He described how STC has structured its business data, developed its own dashboards and cancelled software services it no longer needs.
“We can invest more, not in the head office, but really back to the gyms, back to our staff, back to the training experience,” he said.
However, operators need to organise their data, teach systems to understand the business and ask relevant questions. Carlbark warned that without that preparation, AI can deliver confident, rapid answers that are wrong.
“You need to understand your business, otherwise you can get lost in this,” he said.
Nason described a demonstration in which an OpenAI contact created a branded platform intended to connect with franchisees’ CRM systems across territories in around 30 minutes. While impressed by the potential, she remained concerned about security and the pace of change.
“I’m optimistic. I think it’s an opportunity. We are absolutely missing the boat if you don’t utilise it, but it hasn’t won my heart yet, and no, I don’t trust it,” she said.
Wright argued that AI’s value lies in freeing staff from tasks and providing useful information to build relationships.
“What it doesn’t do is talk to your members face to face,” he said. “It’s all about the people and making sure that that frees those tasks up, so you can have better engagement with the actual customers.”
Carlbark sees hyper-personalisation as an opportunity to make fitness more relevant and influence behaviour, while Wright highlighted the role of social connections in encouraging activity.
According to Myzone’s analysis, users with four or more connections exercise 41 per cent more than those without, while those receiving likes or comments from four or more people in a month exercise 138 per cent more.
“If someone nudges four or more other people in the month, they exercise 157 per cent more,” Wright said, arguing that greater activity could support retention.
Wright also revealed that Myzone is developing functionality to log strength workouts.
Responding to a question from Cameron Saunders, CEO of UK Active, about how far membership penetration could grow, Musgrove predicted that one in three Americans could become gym members within the audience’s lifetime. He also identified emerging markets as a substantial growth opportunity and and predicted that the next five years would be a golden period for investment and transactions in the sector.
