Bath-based MoveGB’s new online platform, Move At Home, has helped generate over £1 million for self-employed instructors and independent fitness businesses during the coronavirus lockdown.
Last month, gyms, fitness venues and community halls were forced to close their doors, leaving the livelihoods of self-employed instructors and independent fitness businesses on the line.
MoveGB, which before the pandemic offered access to over 6,000 activity locations, studios and gyms in 25 cities across the UK, changed its business to help reduce the economic impact the coronavirus would have on their partners.
Within a week, the Bath-based company launched Move At Home, an online platform enabling fitness businesses to stream their classes to MoveGB’s membership base of 250,000 users and maintain their income.
In less than a month, the initiative has streamed over 40,000 classes, generating over £1 million for the 1919 fitness, yoga and dance instructors. The number of classes and providers continues to grow daily.
Lucy Stone, founder of award-winning yoga studio The Hive in Bath, said: “Since the lockdown and converting to streaming our classes online through MoveGB, we have seen an increase of people attending classes by almost 300%.
“We have had to double the number of classes available on the timetable from 23 to 45 to meet the growing demand and now are streaming classes to people from all over the world.”
Alister Rollins, CEO and founder of MoveGB, commented: “In the face of an unprecedented crisis, we knew we have to change things up quickly to help support our members and partners.
“For our members, this meant keeping them moving while at home. For our fitness partners, this meant ensuring they could maintain their livelihoods.
“MoveGB was created to be a community-led business that would connect providers with users to encourage people to stay active for life.
“With Move At Home we have been able to uphold that principle and prevent this pandemic from having a significant impact on our partners’ businesses.”
To further protect the many independent small fitness businesses in the UK, MoveGB has also launched an Activity Provider Support Fund (#SupportOurIndies) which will provide income to providers, even when classes are not running.
Free to existing members, Move At Home offers live-streamed classes from MoveGB independent instructors and on-demand workouts from the world’s top trainers.
Existing MoveGB members will have access to these features as part of their membership at no extra cost.
Move At Home is also available to new members from £1 per week, offering on-demand workouts as well as pay-as-you-go live-streamed classes.
During the COVID-19 crisis, MoveGB is supporting our NHS heroes by offering them Move At Home for free.
You can find the latest coronavirus information, advice and community updates for the Bath & North East Somerset area on our dedicated live blog here.
