Daniel Jones is the brains behind Orbit4, the world’s first digital ecosystem to manage and facilitate the entire commercial fitness product cycle. We caught up with him at Orbit4 HQ in Cheshire

What is Orbit4?
Orbit4 is the umbrella brand for our fitness industry platforms: FitnessCompared, FitnessFinance, WeServiceGymEquipment and WeBuyGymEquipment.

The company has qualified and aggregated the industry’s best partners so that gym operators have access to the wider market. We’re providing automatic pricing following the bidding process when gym operators are looking to purchase and finance gym equipment, tender for service contracts and dispose of or resell unwanted assets. We’ve even given our industry its own fitness equipment comparison site!

Why are gym operators and your partners so excited about this platform?
Orbit4 is an amazing present to the industry and a genuine win-win for any company involved in the fitness industry. It allows gym operators to go digital when it comes to purchasing, financing, maintaining and disposing of fitness equipment.

Our qualified, aggregated partners are placed into our bidding platforms to provide the perfect ecosystem to tender at relevant times during the asset cycle. Spreading the net across the whole industry in a few clicks of your mouse enables you to quickly and impartially test the market.

What’s the next big thing?
Gym operators are particularly excited about our plans to combine all the businesses on one dashboard called Orbit4 Premium.

With the inception of WeBuyGymEquipment in 2015, FitnessCompared in 2018 and now FitnessFinance and WeServiceGymEquipment, it is the next logical step.

Orbit4 Premium is currently in its final build phase so we’re looking forward to making further announcements in the forthcoming weeks. These are really exciting times for our group, which recently received £350,000 of growth funding to help us ramp up services for our customers.

Why is Orbit4 important for the industry?
As an industry, we’ve been buying fitness equipment, renewing service contracts, managing and disposing of assets in what some would say is an archaic way for far too long. The automotive industry has made digital the norm for purchasing, servicing and trading-in. Our industry needs to seriously catch up with the rest of the world and Orbit4 is the perfect solution. Pure digital transformation is here!

What is the process of aggregating the partners?
It’s essential that we partner with quality companies who are going to represent our brands well and share the same values. We carry out a thorough vetting process when we have an enquiry from a new fitness equipment supplier, service provider or trader. Each business must have an element of experience in the sector, hold relevant insurance certificates and have a positive reputation. The fitness industry is a small world so we know many of these brilliant companies already, as well as the less reliable ones (to avoid!)

What are your plans for the future?
As explained before, we have successfully brought investment into the business via debt funding. The short-term plan is to employ more people across the USA, EMEA and the UK. Our platforms have been live in the US and EMEA for two and a half years so it’s now time to up our game and drive our offering into more countries within these regions.

New opportunities are presented to stakeholders depending on what product or service they offer. In turn, gym operators benefit from the increased efficiencies via streamlining the procurement process, financing, tendering of service contracts and achieving the best price for unwanted equipment.

The inclusive nature of the platforms provides the perfect environment for all stakeholders to do business efficiently, effectively and with 100 per cent transparency.

Can you save the planet?
We can help! If your fitness business is more environmentally friendly, then it will appeal to a passionate and loyal customer base. Orbit4 will help you do that while reducing your expenses and cutting the negative environmental impact of your business.