Dear gym members,

I would like to take this opportunity firstly to express my gratitude for your previous and continued support of SCFS.

I want to thank you for being part of the community here – because while we may be a fitness centre, it is also a place where we value the building, nurturing and sustaining of new relationships and friendships with one another.

This bad news is something I NEVER wanted to bring in and I have tried and succeeded in absorbing all rising costs for years so that I did not have to bring increase.

However, it is with regret that I now must inform you of this decision I have needed to make after facing the realities of the increased costs of operation – post COVID19. My day to day overheads and running costs have increased largely due to staffing, cleaning, wage increases etc etc.

After experiencing moderate rising costs for the last few years, I have refrained from membership adjustments. However – it is now necessary to continue to survive, operate, provide the service I want to provide and to enable me to invest and continue to raise the standard of the facility from what it was – 5 years ago.

Furthermore, it is obvious to see that I have capped membership to allow the gym to remain quiet at all times, allowing you continued access to a safe, clean, relaxed, none busy facility to accomplish your workout goals.

Membership will remain capped as it is, for now.

The membership adjustments are still a month or more away – this is just me giving you notice of my decision.

Please ask at reception for details of how this will effect you.

Basically as of the END of September 2020 – The £9.95 and £14.95 rolling gym memberships will come to an end and expire.

EVERYONE who was on either of those memberships will need to switch to one of the new membership categories.

All people who had joined/rejoined in the last 5 weeks since reopening have all taken one of the new memberships.

There are TWO options:

  1. £19.95 rolling monthly direct debit (For which I can cancel and create a new subscription OR, just adjust your current direct debit from my side to the £19.95 and continue as normal.
  2. Pay upfront and in advance for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months.
    The prices for that are:
    – 1 month = £25
    – 3 months = £65 (Equates to £21.66p/m)
    – 6 months = £110 (Equates to £18.33p/m)
    – 12 months = £210 (Equates to £17.50p/m)

I am deeply sorry to have to bring this to your attention.

The only other option I have is to advertise heavily and fill up the gym with loads of new members – increasing wear & tear on the facility, increasing crowdedness and just generally altering the current atmosphere that you’ve witnessed over the last 5 weeks that I’ve been re-open.

… In using that option… I would need to get 100-200 more members to get back to where I was in March 2020…. and in doing so – I’d then need to revert to a booking system, time limited sessions, and session restrictions… Where you’d need to go online and book each gym session, each week, for a time booked in advance.

After much discussion, it appeared most people opted to pay £1 to £2 more per week – to allow me to keep the facility as it is now.

I’m happy with the current membership numbers with everyone paying £1 to £2 more per week.

You voted – “Prefer the facility quieter given the current climate.”

Win. Win.

Should you decide to terminate your membership and stop using the facility – I can completely understand that many will NOT be happy about a price rise so therefore – I thank you once again for your previous custom – your business was massively appreciated by both me and my family.

Thanks again,

              Simon Coles

Gym Owner.


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