Absolutely Fitness cut costs across 4 clubs with Virtuagym
The story of Absolutely Fitness
Absolutely Fitness isn’t built like most low-cost gym chains. Its four clubs sit under Absolutely Together, a charity for disabled children, and every membership helps fund free activities for those children and their families. The profits that would normally reach an owner go to the cause instead.
Jack Bishop is Commercial Director, and his job is simple to state and hard to do: run the sites as commercially as any business would, so the money keeps flowing to the charity. No two clubs are the same on purpose: each is tailored to its local community, with different class timetables, fully equipped ladies-only areas and even a café where it fits. Add staffed receptions and “fitness gurus” instead of salespeople, and the model starts to explain itself.
The challenge: community over churn, without the pen and paper
Ten years ago, the team watched budget gyms across the UK churn through members. They wanted the opposite: retention built on community, around three words they still use, confidence, commitment and community.
The problem was the toolkit. Workouts tracked on paper, challenges pinned to a board on the wall, no easy way to connect members. It didn’t scale, and it didn’t build the community they were after.
That search led them to Virtuagym around 2016, first for the member app and its community portal.
When we first spoke to Virtuagym, what really helped us was the community portal. Members could download the app, chat to each other, and we finally had one central place to reach everyone.
The problems they solved
An app that builds member confidence
A lot of people feel intimidated in a gym and won’t ask for help, even when there’s an instructor right there. The 3D avatars on the app show them how to do an exercise, so they can build confidence on their own.
Behind that, the team uses the Virtuagym workout creator to build programs for members and track them. The community feed is still active daily, years on, the retention engine they went looking for in the first place.
We build training programs with Virtuagym's workout creator and track them there. And the 3D avatars mean members can see how to do an exercise and build their confidence quickly, on their own.
More ways to support members beyond the gym floor
The team wanted to give members more than a room full of equipment. They added Virtuagym’s on-demand video , mindfulness and food app, plus advice groups.
It extended the support they’re known for into members’ homes, so guidance didn’t stop at the door.
We wanted to give members more. With Virtuagym we could offer the video content, the meditation and the food app, so they always had something there, wherever they were.
Everything in one place
Absolutely Fitness didn’t start with the full platform. They began with the app, and as the business grew, they moved everything onto the Virtuagym All-in-One, one system for memberships , income , access and coaching.
Now the turnstiles talk to the platform, members and income run through a single place, and staff stop juggling separate tools. That consolidation also brought a cloud-based setup that cut costs along the way.
Moving to the Virtuagym All-in-One meant everything was in one place. It reduced our costs significantly, and honestly it just made things easier, because it's all in one system.
The results: fewer admin hours, better decisions, real support
With everything on one platform, the payoff shows up in the day-to-day. The business analytics are now a weekly habit, driving how the team reports and measures success. And because it’s built for fitness people, not IT departments, staff spend less time at a computer and more time doing what they enjoy.
Virtuagym is built for fitness people, so it's easy to use. It frees staff up to do the stuff they enjoy, not sitting at a computer. And the business analytics, we use weekly, the data's really powerful.
The support we get from Virtuagym is far better than anything in our other sectors. Having a real human you can actually talk to, who'll resolve things or find a workaround, is really valuable.
Looking ahead
No plans to add sites, that’s the discipline of being a charity. The goal is to grow in quality: become the highest-value low-cost gym, add recovery elements, and use AI to build genuinely bespoke workouts that lower the barrier to turning up.
They’re also watching Virtuagym Connect and FitZone for the gamified, GPS-based challenges that would fit that strategy.
I recommend Virtuagym because I looked at pretty much every solution out there, and it was an easy decision. It aligns with what we're trying to do, and having real humans on support you can actually talk to is something you just don't get elsewhere.
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