Time.news – Ingenious measures are needed to help gyms (and swimming pools) survive this dark period. The government sector associations have asked for it these days. Many are in danger of closing due to excessively high costs and the season has just begun.
Support, already during the pandemic, came from private initiatives. Like that of the all-Italian company, Fitprime, which manages wellbeing programs for many Italian corporations such as Eni, Accenture, Luxottica and for many Italian SMEs, providing wellness-related services to over 250,000 employees in Italy.
“Fitprime has managed to involve a part of users that we have never managed to reach before”, explains Andrea Pambianchi, president of CIWAS (Italian Confederation of Wellness and Sports Activities) as well as owner of gyms. Fitprime, in fact, offers companies the possibility of relying on a single provider to offer their employees the possibility of accessing thousands of sports centers scattered throughout Italy.
“Fitprime has brought new users who perhaps would never have approached a gym”, highlights Pambianchi. And he did so by intercepting a previously unexpressed need: the willingness of companies to offer employees a sort of “welfare bonus”instead of just the traditional meal ticket.
A way to gain even more employee loyalty, as well as to promote their well-being and, consequently, also their productivity. “There is great interest from companies in services that offer well-being to their employees”, confirms Matteo Musa, CEO of Fitprime. “We have realized that the physical and mental well-being of our employees is good for the company and its productivity”he adds.
Fitprime has recently achieved a new record, reaching 3,000 active sports centers in its network. In 2022 the company will close with a 215% business growth compared to 2021. Its services are available to 300,000 employees and the implementation of Wellbeing programs has led it to manage more than 70 large companies with employees located in all Italy.
Furthermore, with Fitprime, users have the opportunity to take advantage of thousands of “virtual” courses that allow, for example, to do yoga or take a mindfulness course in the office during the lunch break. An extraordinary opportunity in lockdown and now for those who don’t have much time to dedicate to wellbeing.
“Our goal is to help companies satisfy the need for well-being and we do it every day by continuously updating the offer of our services dedicated to well-being understood at 360 degrees, from physical activity to nutritional and psychological consultancy”, underlines Musa .
“In this way, there are also positive effects for the sports centers that join our network. More users mean more subscriptions and, consequently, greater resilience in a time of serious crisis for the whole sector”, he adds. “The advantages are many, because if we help employees to partially or fully deal with the expenditure on physical and mental well-being, on the other hand the company’s contribution is deductible from IRES and therefore convenient. In short, ‘a win-win situation’ for gyms, companies and above all for employees”, concludes Musa.