/ BAR UP
Your Weekly Mail from LMI / May 10, 2007

NEWS FROM THE MARKETS – May 8, 2007

Publication of Les Mills news (see Appendix)

  1. The JCC Association sent out to its list-serve a very positive summary of last week’s sales event co-sponsored with Les Mills Northeast and Salesmakers. (More on this from Don Murphy, below.)
  2. May 2007 edition of Fitness Management carries a brief article on the new Les Mills website.
  3. May 2007 Club Business International has a photo of the IHRSA Board featuring Lynne Brick and David Patchell Evans.
  4. Fitness Business News’ weekly email “Newswire” and website carried a hard-news story on Westside Tennis & Fitness, focusing on the club’s finances.
  5. Houston Fitness Fest ( is getting strong local promotion thanks to the PR and advertising efforts of Linda Mcingvale and her team. Click on these links to view or listen to:
  6. The Fitness Fest TV commercial
  7. A radio interview withLinda
  8. A radio ad for Houston Fitness Fest
  9. Another radio ad.

News from US agents

  1. From Don Murphy of Les Mills Northeast:
  2. 24 representatives of 15 JCCs attended the promotional seminar jointly hosted with the Sales Makers consultancy firm. The event “was very eye-opening to most of them,” as only one of the 15 clubs was a current Les Mills club. LMNE will follow up in person with sales calls to each of the clubs.
  3. The joint promotion with Sales Makers gave the seminar a broader appeal than Les Mills could have achieved on its own. Thus it was attended by sales and other non-groupex staff, which enabled key “learnings” about the synergy between groupex and other parts of the club.
  4. LMNE is organizing a similar seminar on Long Island – this time for all clubs (not just JCCs) with a third sponsor in addition to Sales Makers, namely the equipment provider Precor.
  5. The market-leading Sports and Fitness Edge chain in Burlington VT has signed up for BODYPUMP® in each of its five clubs, which Don thinks will add competitive pressure on other clubs to also acquire Les Mills programming.

Editorial planning

  1. Beginning with the June 2007 edition, Les Mills will contribute to a four-part series in Resort and Spa magazine on how elite clubs can include fitness programming in their offering to members. For June, LMI will be offering GFM material on space requirements for group fitness.
  2. We have finalized arrangements with the following national fitness-industry media for coverage of Houston Fitness Fest. Russell Hill will be at the event arranging pictures and editorial copy for the following publications:
  3. Club Business International
  4. Fitness Business News
  5. Fitness Business Pro
  6. Fitness Management
  7. Resort and Spa Magazine
  8. Journal on Active Aging.

Appendix: Recent media coverage

Jewish Community Centers Association, list-serve distribution, May 4, 2007


Fitness Management, May 2007

Club Business International, May 2007