Athletech News interviews Steve Brice, CEO of Ultimate Performance, the personal training provider set to open two new gyms in the Los Angeles area
Ultimate Performance (UP), the personal training and fitness brand beloved by celebrities, is doubling down on its West Coast push and expanding into the Los Angeles fitness scene with the opening of two new gyms in Santa Monica and Century City, California.
Santa Monica and Century City will feature Watson Pro dumbbells and Atlantis machines, bringing UP’s product portfolio to 26 gyms worldwide, including one in the Brentwood, Calif., area and one in West Hollywood.
UP is known for its results-driven personal training program, frequented by stars like New Girl’s Lamorne Morris and Glen Powell, who trained at UP Train to prepare for your role in Top Gun: Maverick. Wider U.S. expansion.
UP was founded in London in 2009 by Nick Mitchell and is currently led by CEO Steve Brice. Earlier this year, the fitness brand secured investment from private equity firm Inflexion, which will fuel its growth ambitions, including plans to open more gyms in the coming years, although UP has remained mum on the amount.
“Nick created a product that was unlike anything else at the time—personal training done right,” Bryce told Athletech News. “It’s about making sure every customer that walks through the door gets a return on their investment.”
This “service first” philosophy continues today, and UP prides itself on its high-end personal training experience with trainers who are properly educated, motivated, and personally invested in their clients’ results.
When it comes to results, the results speak for themselves. Potential UP customers can browse the gallery Impressive customer transformationwith the option to filter by gender, age, program type and duration.
Proven methods have allowed UP to expand from an underground gym in London in 2009 to an international fitness brand with branches in the UK, Dubai, Singapore, Sydney and Hong Kong. Online personal training and coaching is also available.
The geographical spread is wide, of course, but UP’s strategy of targeting the expat market, which has a strong presence in the UK, has paid off.
“The market is ripe in all of these places,” Bryce said. “So you could say the location we chose to open was absolutely perfect, even though a lot of it was based on gut feeling.”
UP is now ready to build on its success Los AngelesBrice told ATN that as its West Hollywood base hosts about 300 to 350 training sessions per week.
“The demand really prompted us to explore further in Los Angeles,” he said. “Most of our gyms operate in the central business district, and considering we’re not in the central business district of Los Angeles, it makes perfect sense to be able to go to Century City. And then in terms of Santa Monica, it’s on Montana Avenue. From From a residential perspective, it’s on a busy corner of a busy highway and is fully visible to everyone, so it makes perfect sense for us, and the Brentwood gym is full which gives us the opportunity to be more. to reach Western customers.”
ultimate performance difference
For the past six months, Bryce had been regularly visiting U.S. gyms, particularly high-end fitness facilities with personal trainers—an informal case study that ultimately revealed there were no clear competitors in the market.
“It gives me confidence,” Bryce said of his visit. “The approach to personal training is still different to us, we hold all our clients accountable and we also make sure every personal trainer in our business is as invested as the clients themselves. Whenever I go to the gym, I don’t see This situation.”
Brice explains that UP clients never have to worry about a personal trainer being distracted by their phone, lacking accountability or focused solely on getting paid for their time.
“When you arrive at Ultimate Performance, your personal trainer will be specially selected by the gym manager, so you can build trust from day one and ensure you receive the exceptional service that all our clients are accustomed to,” he said. “Your personal trainer is as accountable as you are. They are fully committed to your goals and will support you every step of the way. In fact, our trainers are graded not on how many clients they train, but on the results they deliver quality and the quantity of client goals they achieve.”
Another part of UP’s strategy that resonates with clients is its ability to gamify everything from a data perspective, allowing them (and their trainers) to see that their metrics are moving in the right direction — something UP says it will build on The winning formula. next 12 months.
“I think our next logical path now is to start integrating other technologies into ours so they can start to understand how training in UP and the nutritional recommendations we give trainers affects all of their other metrics at the same time.” Bryce said.
UP is not interested in adopting a franchise model, although it has considered one in the past.
“We think we’ve learned pretty much all the lessons we need to learn,” Bryce said. “So our team now has a lot of experience in promotion, particularly in new locations. So I don’t think franchisees can provide us with more market insights into specific locations. We feel we’re best suited right now. Open gyms and we can ensure the quality products remain current.”
Brice said that while fitness studios and gyms often chase the next big trend, UP prefers to keep things simple. However, it is open to working with partners that specialize in other areas to complement its services.
“We know what we’re good at,” he said. “We know we are good at individual training. We know we need to continue to invest in our technology and our people to make sure we stay at the forefront. We will continue to invest in what we do and make sure we are at the forefront of our industry.”
UPDATE: This article has been updated to include new information about UP’s expansion plans
