Grocery executives could save health clubs

The current five-way battle for Safeway within the supermarket industry could prove to be to the advantage of the health and fitness industry says Matthew Goodman, Health Club Management City columnist.

'Once the dust settles,' he says, 'there are bound to be a number of grocery executive looking for jobs and there is currently a trolley dash on by retail executives to join the health club game.

'It usually takes three to make a trend but two recent industry appointments could be the shape of things to come.

'First, Duke Street has appointed Alan Smith, the former chief executive of Somerfield, to run Esporta, at least on an interim basis, though the suggestion that he could be given the job on a permanent basis has not been ruled out of the question.

'The other appointment is at Cannons, where chairman Alan Leighton - who made his name running Leeds-based supermarket group, Asda, before selling it to Wal-Mart - has installed Asda's Arnu Misra as chief operating officer.

'These people might not know how to fix the climbing machine when it breaks down,' says Goodman, 'but they do know about running businesses of scale, about pricing, about customer service and perhaps most crucially as far as health clubs are concerned, about selling members other services and products. In an industry that has largely been built by entrepreneurs, this can be invaluable as the sector continues to grow.' Full the full City column see HCM April - call +44 (0)1462 471932