Robin Drysdale UK’s First Franchisee Six clubs and hungry for more

Robin Drysdale has been flying the flag for Anytime Fitness since he opened his first club in Clifton, Bristol in November 2010. Since opening his first club in Bristol Robin now has a total of six clubs including Cribb Causeway, Yate, Bradley Stoke, Taunton and Yardley.

A successful sportsman himself, Robin played professional tennis for eight years. He was in the top 100 UK tennis players and reached the last 8 in the Australian Open, amongst other achievements. This clearly gave him a passion for sport and fitness as he then moved on to work in the leisure industry in racquet and health club development for many years, including a spell working for Esporta. He also provided tennis consultancy to Eton College for five years.

Why Anytime Fitness?

We asked Robin why he chose Anytime Fitness and what it was that made them stand out from the rest, I was looking for an interesting business and I decided I wanted to set up my own health club. I had a site all lined up and heard about the Anytime Fitness model through a business associate, so it just came at the right time. It made sense to take the plunge and start my first gym with the backing, branding and success of Anytime Fitness, rather than risk going it alone. I did look at other operators but felt that the Anytime Fitness model seemed more sensible: having several franchises seemed to be working for others and Anytime Fitness have a flat rate, low cost royalty structure.

Key Advice

Robin offers further key advice for anyone thinking about owning their own gym,

Be patient. The hardest part is finding the right location for your club; the property search process here in the UK can really slow down your plans. Don’t compromise on location and rush into things. Make sure you’ve found a good location and just keep smiling. You’ll get there, and when you do it’s a great lifestyle, a simple model and relatively low risk investment. Don’t get too hung up on your preferred market, it just might be that the right property isn’t going to turn up, or someone else has already secured it. Look at surrounding areas, be flexible and concentrate on finding the right demographics, access and size of property.

The Future

With six clubs open already and plans for more, Robin says he’ll consider anywhere there is a good site. He might even look overseas if the right property were to come up. Robin has employed a Cluster Manager to run his clubs so he can concentrate on his other business ventures and enjoy a sensible work/life balance.

I love the concept of smaller local clubs for the community and the one thing I’ve learnt so far is that every club is completely different. It depends on the area, the demographics etc. With the Anytime Fitness model it’s so flexible that you can adapt to the changing trends and needs of each club.