S30 Studio may be responsible for some of Perth’s tonedest biceps and quads, but the fitness chain’s bosses say they’ve worked hard to remove the stigma attached to group fitness.
Co-founder Luke Faulkner said the nightclub-style fitness service, complete with dim lighting and early-morning DJ remixes, intended to disrupt the existing gym model.
“People look down on group fitness because they think it’s only for people who want to do high-intensity interval sprints,” he said.
“We want to disrupt the fitness space in such a way that you can actually get a full week of periodized programming (breaking exercise workout schedules down to specific fitness goals), lifting heavy weights, and trying to achieve personal bests.”
The S30 workout provides progressive strength training in a group format consisting of compound exercises, hybrid cardio sessions, Olympic lifting, and tempo training where one person lifts for a set number of seconds.
Its name refers to the number of sets participants will do in an average class.
Since opening its flagship studio on Hay Street in February 2019 with Ret Hartley, the company has added four more studios in Perth and one in outskirts Brisbane.
A further five studios are slated to open in the coming months – two in Perth and one each in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sydney.
“Post-COVID people want to diversify out of corporate life. I think more people appreciate their freedom and the opportunity to do something they’re a little bit more passionate about,” Mr. Faulkner said.
The Perth-based entrepreneur embraced COVID-19 restrictions at the height of the pandemic by shifting clients to an online platform to access virtual workouts.
“It opened up a lot of opportunities because our social media followers around the world signed up. We’ve survived by building our online presence very quickly in a matter of days,” said Mr. Faulkner.
“We’ve kept that commitment going, doing Zooms, working online, and some of our amazing members kept their membership until we came back.”
S30 has secured $2.2 million in funding from Perth-based investment group Collab Capital, which Faulkner said would help accelerate its growth into new markets.
The investment will be used to market S30 and expand staff and technology.
Collab Capital Managing Director John Zendler said his company identified several unique selling propositions in S30 that solidified the investment opportunity.
