When leisure operator 1Life decided to transform Woughton Leisure Centre in Milton Keynes into a state of the art facility, group fitness emerged as the key USP needed to differentiate in a cluttered fitness market in Milton Keynes.

1Life CEO Neil King shares why partnering with Les Mills has helped the centre on its road to achieving excellence.

Why choose to focus on group exercise?

The fitness market in Milton Keynes is saturated by other fitness operators and we wanted to do something different. Doing GX properly is something we’ve wanted to do for many years and the worst thing you could do in Milton Keynes is open another traditional gym so we decided to open a first-class group exercise experience.

What attracted you to partnering with Les Mills?

I’ve worked with Les Mills for many years and have always had a view that others doing it have done so in an average way. We wanted to do it brilliantly. Milton Keynes was an appropriate opportunity and Les Mills was the first operator we thought to partner with because we knew that working together would make it a huge success.

What have been some of the key outcomes for you?

Working together has been excellent. Les Mills have given us loads of support, guidance and advice which, to be perfectly frank, we’ve needed. Some of the outcomes have been incredible. We’ve now got over 10,000 visitors per month in a 1970’s leisure centre – that’s 10,000 people getting more active more often in three state of the art group exercise spaces so all round a fantastic result.