Main activities
The sphere of interests of Planet Fitness, apart fr om the main activity – creation and management of fitness clubs in Russia and abroad – also includes consulting and franchising, professional assistance in the creation of sports and SPA objects fr om scratch, training of manpower, organization of events significant for the industry, and support of professional sport.
Franchising
Planet Fitness – the largest Russian chain brand of sports and health clubs – sets as its strategic task the systematic assimilation of new regions of Russia, CIS and foreign countries. The first club operating under a franchising agreement was opened in 2003 in Samara, the second one – in Kazan. On the whole, presently there are 7 clubs opened under the agreement on commercial concession. Franchising projects are successfully functioning in Samara, Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny.
Consulting and distribution
Consulting is one of the key directions of the company’s business. The vast experience in consulting and educational activities on designing and equipping the clubs, as well as on training the personnel for fitness clubs in the cities of Russia and CIS guarantees a mutually profitable collaboration with our potential partners.
The Mega Fitness Company, being a member of the Planet Fitness Holding, acts as the exclusive distributor of the best world manufacturers, such as Nautilus, Stair Master, Sports Art and is in charge of the provision and kitting up of the leading fitness clubs of Russia and CIS countries with professional equipment and sports goods. The Mega Fitness Company has been carrying out its activities since 1995. In the course of these years the Company provided with the necessary equipment over 200 largest sports and health facilities, resort houses, hotels, individuals, as well as all the clubs of the Planet Fitness chain. Mega Fitness has a broad geography of deliveries: fr om Kalinigrad to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, from Alma-Ata to Anadyr.
Star Trac-Russia is one more member of the Planet Fitness Holding and it operates as the exclusive distributor of the professional equipment manufactured by Star Trac, USA, for fitness clubs, sports centers, hotels (cardio equipment, power units, spinning bicycles).
Preparation of fitness professionals
The Planet Fitness Company, being the leader in the national fitness industry, believes that one of its main challenges is to train and improve the qualification of fitness instructors and managers. In order to solve this task, in 1998 the Academy of Fitness was created, wh ere young specialists have an opportunity to acquire serious theoretical knowledge and practical skills in all the modern directions existing in the industry, and as far as fitness professionals are concerned – they can improve their qualification and get familiar with the latest achievements in the industry. Within the time of the Academy’s operation more than 4000 specialists in various fitness spheres have been released by it.
The Academy of Fitness, a unique educational institution, holds the license of the Department on Education of Moscow Government (Registration number 015934 of 18.02.2004) on educational activities connected with the training that is supplementary to secondary and higher professional education, as well as with the improvement of qualification of graduates. Employees of the Planet Fitness chain undergo the obligatory training and regular improvement of qualification at the Academy of Fitness. For the industry specialists and esteemers of physical training the Academy of Fitness (supported by Planet Fitness) released over 50 books and educational and methodical aids, including “Basic aerobics in health-improving fitness, “Children’s fitness”, “Vocabulary of fitness terms”, “Pilates methods and your health”, “Fitness dietology”, “Psychological aspects of a fitness workout”.
“SPA territory”
SPA Territory covers one more aspect of fitness industry – the field of beauty. There are two brands in the portfolio of the SPA Territory: “Beauty Planet” – beauty salons, and “Oriental Express” – spa salons and spa clubs. SPA Territory is the exclusive Russian partner of such leading world brands as: Kerstin Florian (professional spa cosmetics, USA), Hinoki (professional cosmetic remedies, Japan), exclusive spa line from the Isle of Bali Jamu-Jamu, Elemis (professional luxe-class spa brand, Great Britain).
SPA Territory does not imply just SPA salons operating in the chain clubs, but consulting services as well. The Company renders professional assistance in creating SPA facilities. The vast experience of successful work related to the development and operation of SPA salons, a team of professionals, individual approach to every new project enables the SPA Territory to provide a complex of lead-up related to the organization of fitness clubs of various categories.
As of February 2008, there are 14 functioning projects – in Moscow (since 1997), in St. Petersburg (since 1996), in Samara (since 2003), in Belgorod (since 2008) and in Stockholm (since 2007).
The personnel of SPA Territory is represented by 240 employees. The staff-members undergo regular training in Sweden, Japan, India, France, Great Britain, and Italy, they are winners of professional contests and championships.
Support and development of professional sport
Planet Fitness is the general sponsor of the All-Russian Federation on Sports and Health-Improving Aerobics and finances the Russian national team in sports aerobics. Thanks to the federation’s work sports aerobics is becoming a mass kind of sport in the territory of Russia as well. We have covered such cities and regions as Moscow and Moscow Region, St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region, Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Chelyabinsk, Ivanovo, Tyumen, Omsk, Pskov, Magnitogorsk, Kazan, and Bashkortostan. The Federation has the status of the All-Russian organization, because its members are from over 50 constituent entities of RF. The regular composition of the picked team includes sportsmen from Ekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Omsk, St. Petersburg, Khanty-Mansiysk, Tyumen, Moscow and Moscow Region, and Ivanovo (25 people, in the aggregate), and as for the youth team, there are 40 more sportsmen in it.
The President of the All-Russian Federation on Sports and Health-Improving Aerobics is the Vice-President of the Planet Fitness Company Marianna Maslennikova, World-class athlete, and two-time winner of the European Cup in track-and-field athletics.
Sports aerobics is the discipline of the Federation on International Gymnastics (FIG). In 1996 and in 2000 sports aerobics participated in the Olympic Games as a show kind of sport. Besides, it is a spectacular, beautiful kind of sport; that is why our sportsmen are actively participating in shows, at various festivals propagandizing sport and healthy lifestyle. The number of participants of all-Russian competitions, being conducted by our Federation on a yearly basis in various regions, reaches 400 people. In the finals of the Russian Championship in 2007 over 500 sportsmen were registered. The national Russian team every year participates in principal international starts, such as World Cup stages, World Championships, and European Championships. The most recent World Championship took place in Ulm in April 2008, wh ere members of the National team won, in the aggregate, 2 gold medals, 3 silver medals, and 5 bronze ones. The Federation also conducts coacher and judging seminars.
St. Petersburg union of hair stylists and cosmetologists
Planet Fitness, together with Dolores Kondrashova, honored art worker of RF, President of the Russian Union of hair stylists and cosmetologists, President of the East-European zone of the International Organization of Hair Stylists (ОМС), supported by the Russian Union of Hair-Stylists and Cosmetologists, revived St. Petersburg Union of Hair-Stylists and Cosmetologists in 1999. The same year it was headed by Irina Stepanovna Razumova, President of Planet Fitness. On a yearly basis the organization conducts open Championships with the participation of proficients in the filed of hair-dressing art, make-up designers and cosmetologists. The number of participants of this event is constantly growing: if the first championship was attended by about 80 professionals, the 9th contest attracted already 218 hair-stylists and make-up designers. The event has a broad regional coverage: from Moscow to Vladivostok, from Murmansk to Krasnodar, on the whole, about 25 regions.
Support of extreme sport
Since 2000 there has been the special “Planet Extreme” project in the Planet Fitness club chain for admirers of fitness and active outdoor rest. Specialists from Planet Fitness organize expeditions to various parts of the planet. The route of the travel is being elaborated in such a way, that its participants might overcome it as actively and extremely as possible, changing the means of transportation: on foot, by bicycle, by boat and by kayak – depending on their destination. Every expedition is preceded by training lessons in the gyms of the fitness clubs chain. The project “Planet Extreme” presently includes 250 people; the number of participants is constantly growing. Elbrus, Vietnam, Kamchatka, Mont Blanc, Cuba, Nepal, South-Eastern Asia, Altai, Peru, India, Armenia, China, Venezuela, and Thailand – it is a short list of countries, wh ere the project participants have been in the course of the recent eight years.
