Health Clubs See Jump in Business

(NECN: Peter Howe, Cambridge, Mass.) - For at least one industry, January's the best month of the year: the health-club business. Membership at workout clubs normally jumps 12 percent as New Year's resolution season kicks in -- but more and more clubs are struggling to keep those members come July or December. A perfect example of the January boom is Susanna Locke, 24, of Watertown, a social-work graduate student at Simmons College who started a membership at Evolve Fitness in Cambridge on Jan. 6. She had been working out at Simmons but was attracted by a promotional deal to join Evolve, where her goal this year is "hoping to get a little bit more toned." Joe Moore, CEO of the health club trade group IHRSA, says, "January is by far the best month of the year for health clubs.'' IHRSA finds club memberships jump on average 12 percent every January. In this industry, the big challenge is making sure that the people who come in in January are still here in July or December -- or haven't gone to competitors. According to IHRSA, 41.5 million Americans are members of a health club, about 15 to 18 percent of all adults. But while that number grew every year from 1995 to 2004, it was down 3 percent in 2007, the most recent year studied. Ominously for club owners, 42 percent of their members go fewer than 50 days a year -- customers who may be on the verge of deciding a health club membership they rarely use isn't worth paying for. What that means for owners like Lucio Paolini of Evolve Fitness is they face unrelenting pressure to recruit and retain members. "Holding on to new members is always very important because the cost of keeping a new member is much less" than the marketing and promotional expense of getting another new member, Moore says. Paolini's answers include holding membership prices to $19 to $30 a month, while springing for details like an indoor waterfall, ecologically sustainable bamboo floors, women-only workout room and special equipment like workout ropes and Russian kettle balls. For indoor illumination, Paolini explained, "We went with a lighting called full-spectrum lighting, and what that does, it helps work with seasonal affective disorder, and it actually amplifies your mood puts you in better spirits typically this time of year" when the sun in Boston sets by soon after 4 p.m. Paolini says the club also focuses close attention on making sure new members feel welcomed and well informed about all the kinds of equipment and classes Evolve offers. Paolini's customers, like Susanna Locke's friend and schoolmate Georgia Hammer of Cambridge, are choosy customers. Hammer just dumped her old gym for Evolve. "It was really basic. It was in the basement, so there was no light. It was very cold.'' Hammer said that she has "been a member of a lot of gyms before, but this was the best fit financially, and it's a great place to be. It's really clean and convenient.'' Susanna Locke say that "for sure" she will continue to be coming to Evolve come December. For the $18 billion U.S. health-club business, this is a year it will be hoping for a lot of Susannas. (With videographer Cameron Robbins)