Severely impacted by the Covid pandemic, which has led to their closure and to a boom in home fitness all over the world, fitness studios and other types of membership-based gyms are being led to establish new connections with the home fitness industry while looking for new sources of revenues. Olivier Pantel, a veteran of Kettler who has become the French distributor for the German brand of home fitness equipment as well as Nautilus, is testing ways in which commercial fitness and home fitness can work together.
Pantel is also the head of the fitness section of the French sporting goods and bike industry association, Union Sport & Cycle (USC), which has established a special committee to promote sports participation at the governmental level by adding the representation of operators of fitness clubs, football clubs and other such entities. Unlike most other sporting goods industry associations in Europe, it has a particularly strong voice because it also represents the country’s sporting goods retailers.
The committee is strongly involved in lobbying for fitness clubs right now following an announcement by French President Emmanuel Macron on July 12 that, starting some time in August, only fully vaccinated people or those who have tested negative to Covid will be able to enter gyms as well as restaurants, cinemas, large shopping centers and certain other closed spaces.
It’s going to be another blow for the 4,700 fitness studios operating in France, which have already lost between 30 and 50 percent of their members after being closed from almost 12 months until June. They are going to stop receiving government aid in August. Pantel estimates that more than 10 percent of them have already shut down and that the others will have a hard time recruiting new members among the people who have switched to home training. September and October will be key, he says, predicting a wave of consolidation in the sector.
Based on his vision of the post-Covid situation, which is partly shared by big players in the market like Technogym, home training and gym memberships could become complementary in the future, with people who are working remotely on some days of the week training at home with digital content supplied by their club to support their routines in the gym.
Training Series, the wholesale distribution company that Pantel set up with his wife in March 2019, after leaving as French country manager of Kettler, has started testing a new digital solution that would allow fitness clubs to act as marketplaces for a variety of fitness apparel and other gear in exchange for a commission. Their members would get a discount on the products they order through the marketplace, which would be delivered by the vendors directly to their homes.
Training Series has been the exclusive distributor of Kettler in France since its start two years ago, following the acquisition of the European rights to the brand by the Swiss-based Trisport group. The pandemic has allowed Pantel to reactivate all his contacts in the home fitness sector, but the business has not yet returned to its former levels as Kettler is still working on new and innovative connected solutions that are expected to hit the market next year.
On the other hand, the pandemic has not prevented Pantel from taking advantage of a huge demand by major French sporting goods retailers such as Decathlon and Intersport for the products of Nautilus – including Schwinn and Bowflex – for which Training Series became the exclusive French distributor one year ago. The only problem has been the disruption in the supply chain caused by Covid, which has caused delays of three to six months in their deliveries.
Training Serues is also the official distributor of Tunturi in France, among others.
In the meantime, Training Series has added some interesting new brands to its portfolio including Fittar, a Dutch start-up in which Pantel has taken a minority stake. Born a couple of years ago, Fittar has developed a connected mirror that guides people through some 1,500 different workouts that can be performed at home.
Training Series’ latest addition is the distribution in France for the products of YBell Fitness, a company based in Los Angeles that has developed a versatile cross between a dumbbell and a kettlebell that helps perform a wide variety of strength-training exercises. It also can serve as a push-up stand. Pantel has enlisted a well-known former master trainer of Planet Fitness to provide functional training courses for the clubs that have bought its equipment.
Photo: Risen Wang, Unsplash
