The Business Exchange Bath & Somerset Issue 4: Summer 2017 | Page 21

MADE IN BATH
MOVE GB
Alister Rollins is the man behind MoveGB, an innovative online
health and fitness business that started life in Bath just over three
years ago – and this business is truly on the move.
It will officially launch in London later this year and has already
rolled out across Bath, Bristol, Brighton and many other areas.
The idea is simple, customers sign up online to be a
MoveGB member and then choose a fitness package to
suit their needs. By paying a monthly fee based upon their
interests, geographical area and how many fitness activities
they wish to take part in - they can choose to attend
classes across many different disciplines and providers. This
ranges from gym, to dancing, yoga, swimming, climbing,
running and even hoola hooping.
On the other hand, providers of those fitness activities
can become part of the platform, choose the level of fee
they charge and MoveGB takes a small portion of that
fee in return for driving local customers to their classes
or premises. In return the platform markets their business
alongside others in the health and fitness sector. It’s like
‘Netflix’ for physical activity.
There are no cancellation or joining fees for clients, no
long contracts and unused credit can be rolled over. Also,
there is no need to just choose one single activity, mix and
match is available to all.
Alister said: “I believe in being active and that being
active brings happiness. I personally enjoy running,
climbing and mountain biking because I believe moving the
body, stimulates the mind and provides a mental boost and
breathing space. We need as a society to be more active
and improve our health and wellbeing.”
The 35-year-old is no stranger to business or fitness.
It was while he was studying mechanical engineering,
innovation and design at the University of Bath in
2000 that he got the bug for being an inventor and an
entrepreneur. In fact, he’d already started down this path
when, for his A level studies, he designed a computerised
punchbag.
Highly creative and one of life’s problem solvers, Alister
and a friend and fellow student entered a competition
to create a business plan using their skills in design and
innovation. Their idea revolved around fitness and the gym.
Their plan was to find ways to keep people who had gym
memberships coming back to the gym by making exercise
more interesting. They proposed retro fitting computer
consoles on gym equipment to entertain people as they
exercised. This was a new concept at the time.
The team won the competition and were awarded
£5,000. So they started to put their plan into action and
Alister was chosen to lead the team. The company became
the first tenant of the Bath Innovation Centre in central
Bath and over time developed a strong relationship with
IBM and others. Later the team developed a key software
programme for the gym sector around gathering data – as
they recognised the sector had not grasped the value of
really knowing the customer.
Alister explained: “There is a problem with the gym
industry in that it has a very high level of churn. About
half of those who sign up for membership will leave or
stop going for one reason or another. We created the first
‘SaaS’ – software as a service product – in the health and
fitness industry which was in the Cloud.
“By using a swipe card entry system you can monitor
members’ behaviour and likely behaviour over time which
helps with planning business growth, investment and
brings many other business benefits. When you know your
audience you can really get to know your business and
chart a path for growth.”
This product flourished and Alister later sold the
company and it is still the market leader today. Alister
moved to the New York office to help the transition for a
year.
“It was an interesting and exciting time but I was
starting to see a bigger problem though,” he said.
“The gym model relies on people NOT going as most
gyms would not have the capacity to cope if all of its
members turned up. The average length of time a gym
member actually shows up and exercises is eight weeks.
For me, highlighted that most profits were ‘bad’ profits
as the model was misaligned with core beliefs around
encouraging more people to be fit and healthy – not
relying on half of them not to turn up to exercise.
“Our research showed 60 per cent of those who were
taking part in fitness activities were still paying out for
something that they were no longer doing. I wanted to
develop a better model, one more aligned to consumer
behaviour and provide access to activity so people had
variety and choice.”
So Alister went back to his business roots in Bath and
started again by creating the MoveGB platform. The model
is like Netflix or Spotify , wIth one fee, starting at about
£8.99 per week. This allows members to choose which
classes or providers they wish to attend with no tie-ins.
“I firmly believe the fitness industry needs to change to
suit how people want to live their lives. To be active for life,
people need variety, variety moves you. That’s where the
idea for the Move platform came from,” Alister said.
Since its launch MoveGB has grown rapidly with
200,000 people registered and 3000 fitness, health and
wellbeing providers with 100,000s opportunities being
offered.
@MoveGB
WE CRAFT ENGAGING EXPERIENCES
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www.infinitynation.com
01793 238 697
@toinfinity
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2017
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