News

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OCL’s Quality and Compliance Manager volunteers to vaccinate Greater Manchester community

Kate Foster, Oldham Community Leisure’s (OCL) Quality and Compliance Manager, has swapped her desk and clip board for PPE and syringes, retraining whilst furloughed to administer the COVID-19 vaccine for the people of Greater Manchester.   Kate, 37, has worked for OCL for 14 years. Her normal day job is managing the health and safety and legal compliance of Oldham’s leisure centres, but she jumped at the chance to retrain with St John’s Ambulance whilst the leisure...

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Leisure-net research shows customers are eager to return immediately when facilities reopen

A repeat of Leisure-net’s Post Lockdown Recovery Survey reveals consumer confidence about returning to facilities is extremely high, with well over three quarters (76.34%) of members questioned saying they will return immediately when the doors to their health club or leisure centre are open. The new research, sponsored by Active IQ, followed the lines of Leisure-net’s initial survey back in April, aiming to gauge consumer confidence following a second spell of closure for UK health clubs...

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New white label fitness platform enables clubs to offer bespoke online services

A new, white label online fitness platform has launched, enabling health club operators, instructors and Personal Trainers to offer live streaming at the touch of a button, as well as pre-recorded training sessions and group exercise classes, all branded as their own. The easy-to-use, low-cost web- and mobile web-based platform is already being used by more than 45 health clubs across the UK, including London’s Roehampton Club, The Marlow Club and The Health Club Collection. It can...

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Building Communities – Retention Convention goes virtual for 2020

More than 1,700 industry professionals from 47 different countries joined Dr. Paul Bedford’s virtual Retention Convention on 3 December, making it the sector’s largest online event of the year. The documentary-style conference brought together speakers from around the world to discuss Building Communities. Retention Guru, Dr. Paul Bedford said: “I knew we couldn’t replicate the Retention Convention in its traditional way, so we didn’t try. The event was a mix of pre recorded and live material...

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Oldham Community Leisure achieves world-class customer feedback

Feedback from Oldham Community Leisure (OCL) customers puts the company ahead of some of the best brands in the world.   The feedback was gained via Net Promoter Score (NPS), a simple means of measuring customer satisfaction. The results calculate the willingness of OCL customers to recommend its facilities and services, and as such are a good barometer of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The community leisure trust, which manages the leisure facilities across the borough, has even...

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Memberships grow at local authority leisure centre during lockdown

Trafford Leisure’s new move Urmston site, which closed its doors just five days after launching its £7m redevelopment due to lockdown in March, reopened with an impressive 53% rise in memberships.   The leisure centre, which has bucked the trend across the UK during the pandemic, has grown its membership through lockdown and beyond with a strategy of customer engagement, open communications with its members and a strong marketing campaign.   Jo Cherrett, COO, Trafford Leisure says: “My team...

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Woman and man in spinning class

OCL offers free memberships to pandemic volunteers

Oldham Community Leisure (OCL) is offering a full month’s complimentary health and fitness membership to recognise the fantastic efforts of volunteers in Oldham during the COVID-19 pandemic. A huge number of local volunteers and volunteer groups have been selflessly supporting the community in numerous ways. OCL is keen to offer recognition for their work and say thank you on behalf of Oldhamers. Simon Blair, Head of Business Development at OCL, says: “The work going on in the...

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OCL Member dances into her 93rd year at Oldham Leisure Centre

Violet Walpole, who turned 93 on the 1st September, was surprised during her weekly line dancing class by the team at Oldham Community Leisure (OCL) with celebratory cupcakes and flowers.   The super-fit granny, who lives in Middleton, catches two buses to the leisure centre, which takes about an hour, and has been attending the line dancing classes at OCL for around six years.   Stuart Lockwood, Chief Executive, OCL, says: “Happy Birthday to the ever-youthful Violet!  She is...

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Older adults exercising

DataHub launches contact tracking solution for the sector

The DataHub has launched a data-driven solution to help re-mobilise the leisure sector. The Tractiv8 customer-facing app, powered by the DataHub, provides members with a way to inform their leisure facility should they contract coronavirus. Tractiv8 then uses the facility’s data within the DataHub to establish who’s been in the building and when, and so identify at-risk groups automatically. The app examines activity, location and time of exposure, allowing operators to quickly communicate with at-risk members. This...

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Stuart Stokes and Doris this dog

“Going digital could help us serve 100% of the population … “

"So many online exercise resources have been created during lockdown – some suggest this period has actually escalated the physical activity industry by five years. All of a sudden, even organisations that thought online wasn’t for them, or didn’t have the resource to make it happen, are offering a digital service and flying with it. "Now, as we embrace re-opening, questions are arising around how this online provision will – and should – continue, and whether...

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