Businesses in Southbank

With more than 40 years of experience in the industry, club manager Rob Ward said it was the Anytime Fitness model that drew him into the role.

Consisting of up to 2700 clubs worldwide, of which nearly 400 are located in Australia, he put the global franchise’s growing success down to its wide reach and flexible approach to fitness.

“It’s definitely the 24-hour model,” he said. “It’s really been growing rapidly for the past six years in particular. It’s just the flexibility for customers, particularly in this area.”

“But also just the size of this organisation, because if you move or travel there’s always one on the corner (so to speak). So that’s a huge benefit. People always say they like the number of clubs and the 24-hour access, 365 days a year.”

Despite being an international franchise, Rob said each club placed a strong emphasis on community.

Having established the club back in February, the team at Anytime Fitness South Melbourne has made it its business to create a comfortable environment for its members while offering affordable rates.

“We really work to ensure we provide the right atmosphere and culture in the club,” he said. “We know every member that walks in the door, so we can call them by their first names.”

“It becomes a bit of a second home for a lot of them and, once the results start kicking in, they really enjoy that atmosphere of being greeted rather than just being another number that walks in the door.”

Anytime Fitness provides a state-of-the-art fitness facility, which includes an upstairs studio for personal training, boot camp and circuit-style classes.

The gym also boasts a team of three highly-qualified personal trainers, including an international body-sculpturing champion.

“It’s an unbelievable team that we’ve got with the amount of years of experience,” Mr Ward said.

“They enjoyed walking into a clean and organised environment and, with the culture that we had, it was more professional so they certainly enjoy working in this environment and it’s a joy for them to come to work.”

Situated a stone’s-throw away from Southbank on Market St, Mr Ward said he and his team could think of no better area to ply their trade and have been quick to embrace the community as their own.

“South Melbourne and Southbank is a great demographic. It’s an area that is always growing with all the apartments, and there’s a good mix of business and residential,” he said.

“It’s important for us to become involved in the community. It’s a great community to be based in and we are really focused on developing our reach.”

Anytime Fitness is located at 63-69 Market St, South Melbourne.
www.anytimefitness.com.au