Parkwood Leisure, one of the UK’s leading public leisure facilities operators, helped prevent more than 7,000 cases of stroke, dementia, depression and type 2 diabetes in 2019, saving the NHS £16 million, a new social value report has shown.

The report, underpinned by industry-leading research undertaken by Sheffield Hallam University, has been developed over the last year by Parkwood in partnership with 4Global to understand the social value generated prior to the pandemic.

Through improved health and subjective well-being, increased educational attainment and reduced crime, Parkwood generated a social value of £425.09 per member for the year - a figure above industry average. In addition, Parkwood has directly helped prevent more than 3,200 cases of depression; a statistic of particular significance following last month’s Mental Health Awareness Week.

The findings in the report have also helped the leisure management firm understand the impact of members not regularly attending its centres. Almost £59 million in social value has been lost during the Coronavirus pandemic. To help combat this, Parkwood has delivered Covid-specific staff training to its teams focusing on safety protocols, specific interventions and targeted programmes, to get people back into physical activity post-lockdown.

In addition, and with the aim of driving even higher social value, Parkwood will be launching a new Wellness Ecosystem service for its members from August. The service will allow users to access a comprehensive digital service that provides clinically robust evidence-based advice and guidance on how to tackle key aspects of their health and wellbeing, in line with NICE and NCSCT guidance.

Glen Hall, Managing Director of Parkwood Leisure said: “We pride ourselves on creating happier and healthier communities. The impact we’re having on health, wellbeing, education, crime and the NHS is clear from this report. Being active has never been more important for our nation and we’re delighted to be helping proactively tackle a wide range of health and social issues. One of our key aims moving forward is to generate even greater social value - hence the launch of our Wellness Ecosystem - whether that is inside our facilities or out in the community, all helping deliver an even greater impact on the nation’s health agenda.”

Chris Phillips, Director at 4Global said: “This report really starts to tell the full story of how being active more broadly benefits individuals and society. We’ve worked closely with Parkwood over the last few years to understand how they have been helping positively impact the broader issues society faces and this report shows they’re really doing that.”

To read more click here and for more information visit www.parkwoodleisure.co.uk

Leading UK leisure facility operator Parkwood Leisure has won the contract to manage the Riviera International Conference Centre (RICC) in Torquay, South Devon.

As part of the new 25-year agreement, which begins on 1 April 2021, the centre will benefit from £1.4m of improvements and upgrades over the coming months.

These improvements will include a new reception, a refurbished gym fitted out with state-of-the art Life Fitness equipment, a virtual spin studio, as well as a high and low ropes adventure course overlooking the sea.

In addition to these changes, the Council will be carrying out over £1.2m of upgrades to the structure, plant and roofs of the building to ensure that the conference facilities, function rooms and ‘Waves’ family leisure pool can continue to be enjoyed by the local community and visitors for years to come.

Glen Hall, managing director of Parkwood Leisure commented: “Riviera International Conference Centre is an iconic facility and one we’re proud to take on the management of.

“The improvements we’ll be making to the centre with the support of the local council will deliver an incredible facility that will provide opportunities for the whole community to be healthier and happier.”

Cllr Swithin Long, cabinet member for Housing, Regeneration and Tourism at Torbay Council, said: “We understand the importance of the RICC not only to our local community, but to Torbay’s visitor and business tourism industry.

“In Parkwood we’ve partnered with a company that can support our vision of supporting healthy and physically active lives for all our residents.

“We’re excited about the improvements being made to the building and grounds, and ultimately welcoming back all leisure and corporate visitors.”

The new fitness facility and ropes adventure course are due to be completed by September 2021.

For more information visit Parkwood Leisure's official website.

Parkwood Leisure has completed gym refurbishments and the installation of new fitness equipment across a number of its UK Leisure Centres.

The gym upgrades are the first in partnership with Life Fitness, who was appointed exclusive equipment supplier to Parkwood Leisure in 2020.

The planned replacement of equipment has been completed at Scotch Horn Leisure Centre, with a full gym refurbishment, including new strength and cardio equipment, plus a functional training zone incorporating pieces from Hammer Strength, Life Fitness’ premium strength training equipment brand.

New equipment has also been installed at Hengrove Park, Erith and Crook Log Leisure Centres.

Crook Log also welcomed an upgraded indoor cycling studio with ICG IC6 bikes and new ICG studios have been installed at Erith Leisure Centre, Brough Park in Leek and Northcroft Leisure Centre in Newbury.

The recent gym upgrades are the first in-line with Parkwood Leisure’s new approach to the design of its health and fitness suites.

All new builds, refurbishments and equipment replacements follow standardised guidelines informed by detailed criteria specific to each site; this includes customer profiling, feedback and insight from staff and suppliers, primary research and industry trends.

“We have a diverse range of sites and spaces across the Parkwood network, and this new approach has led us to review the gym in its entirety, to ensure that every detail is aligned to a consistent look and feel we want to achieve, whilst also meeting the facility’s specific requirements and those of the local community,” explains Alex Godfrey, Parkwood Leisure’s operations director.

“A key element to this is a more thoughtful selection of fitness equipment, and in working with Life Fitness, together we’ve developed a blueprint for our facilities that maximises space and meets members’ exercise needs, while delivering an energetic and motivating environment to work out in. The investment in facilities will continue to be of paramount importance as we start the recovery from COVID-19.”

As part of its commitment to protecting the health and wellbeing of its customers and staff, Parkwood Leisure has invested in a state-of-the-art antimicrobial treatment to be used in conjunction with its facilities’ sanitising programmes.

The product, which has been used by the NHS and London Underground, is sprayed over contact surfaces and works by Lysis, which is the disintegration of a cell by rupture of the cell wall or membrane. This creates an antimicrobial ‘spike’, which pierces any virus or bacteria that lands, consequently rupturing and killing the cell and spread of the virus.

The treatment will be applied to all contact surfaces throughout Parkwood’s leisure centres, including gym equipment, seating areas, changing rooms, bathroom facilities, doors and door handles. Facilities will be initially retreated every seven days once they reopen; however, the treatment is proven to last for up to 28 days, irrespective of additional cleaning or customer contact. It is also water-based and non-toxic.

“Even with regular cleaning and disinfecting, it is still possible for a surface to become re-contaminated by the next person who touches it,” explains Peter Mills, Parkwood Leisure’s health safety and compliance manager.

“Antimicrobial treatment significantly reduces this risk of cross contamination and it also helps to target bacteria that can become resilient to more traditional disinfectants. It will be used across all our leisure centres as part of our preparations for reopening, and of course once we are able to welcome back customers.

“It’s a significant investment for the business and we believe we are one of the first in our sector to implement this technology; when combined with our full-scale reopening plans and processes, it goes a long way to provide the confidence and assurance that we are doing all we can to reopen our facilities safely.”

For more information about Parkwood Leisure’s reopening plans, click here.

Life Fitness, the global leader in commercial fitness equipment, has been appointed as the new and exclusive primary supplier to leisure facilities operator, Parkwood Leisure.

The agreement, which was awarded following a competitive tender process, will see equipment from the supplier’s brand portfolio including Life Fitness, Hammer Strength and Cybex, installed across new and existing gyms. With over 100 sites managed on behalf of local authorities across England and Wales, Parkwood Leisure operates more than 70 health and fitness facilities under its ‘Leisure Centre’ brand.

The new partnership will see Life Fitness enhance Parkwood Leisure’s digital offering, including giving members access to on-demand at-home workout videos, delivered through Life Fitness’ Digital Coach platform.

Launched last month to encourage physical activity whilst exercisers are at home and/or gyms are temporarily closed, Digital Coach hosts workouts created by trainers from the company’s global education arm, Life Fitness Academy. Users can choose from three new ‘workout of the day’ challenges every day, accessible on mobile and desktop via any web browser.

Commenting on the announcement, Glen Hall, Managing Director of Parkwood Leisure, said: “We were thoroughly impressed by Life Fitness throughout the tender process; they’re a great brand fit for us, and the quality and range of equipment will ensure we can deliver high quality fitness facilities that cater for our wide-ranging member demographic.

“Their technology offering will also support our focus on driving digital across the business and help to kick on the digital transformation work we’ve been doing over the past 18 months. Life Fitness will be a key partner in helping us achieve our mission of delivering facilities that support happier and healthier communities.”

Danny Oliver, UK Country Manager for Life Fitness, said: “We’re really excited to partner with Parkwood Leisure; our values as businesses are well-aligned and Parkwood’s customer-first approach is something we strongly believe in too. The combination of our equipment and programming, underpinned by the operational efficiencies and member benefits that our digital solutions will provide, means we’re really well placed to support them in their aims of keeping members active and engaged.”

It was a hat trick of award wins for Parkwood Leisure earlier this month, with three of the operator’s Welsh facilities being recognised at regional and national awards ceremonies.

The 2019 Welsh Hospitality Awards, an annual event which celebrates the efforts of businesses from across the industry, saw nominations for Dolygaer (‘Best Day Out’), plus Cardiff International Pool & Gym and Plantasia (‘Family Venue of the Year’).

The winners, which were voted for by the public, were announced at the awards ceremony on Monday 18th November; outdoor activities centre Dolygaer beat eight other sites to win the ‘Best Day Out’ award, whilst Cardiff International Pool was named ‘Family Venue of the Year’.

Just losing out at the Welsh Hospitality Awards, indoor rainforest attraction Plantasia went on to be named ‘Best New or Renewed Business’ at the Swansea Bay Tourism Awards later that week; the popular site re-opened in April following a £1.1m investment by Swansea Council and a new partnership with Parkwood Leisure.

Colleen Tulmelty, Parkwood Leisure’s Regional Director for the South West & Wales, said of the recent award wins: “These awards acknowledge those who have made a positive difference to the hospitality industry and, more importantly, to their local communities, and it’s fantastic to have three of our sites rewarded for their achievements over the past year.

“All three offer something different and represent the breadth and quality of facilities that we operate; we are very proud of their success and also want to congratulate all the other finalists and winners for their contributions to the local hospitality and leisure industries.”