About us

Company Overview

As there is a growing health awareness in society, individuals spend time on regular physical activities to strengthen their bodies, reduce the risks of diseases, and enhance mental health (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023). Gyms and fitness studios are becoming the first choices of most people to work out as these places have controlled environments, equipment, and access to facilities, along with coach and class services (Fitness Project, 2022). PowerPal is an online platform that provides consumers with access to fitness classes and physical training programs from numerous fitness clubs, wellness centers, gyms, dance studios, and even spas, which aims to help customers improve their fitness, health, and physical well-being.

Typically, classes or programs offered by a specific fitness center are limited in terms of their amount and variety, which discourages consumers from doing exercises. To address this issue, PowerPal functions as a platform that gathers and collaborates with fitness clubs and gyms in the local area. After customers join the membership of PowerPal, they will be able to select the classes or sessions from any of the fitness clubs and gyms in partner with PowerPal, ranging from personal coaching, HIIT training, yoga, pilates, and Zumba classes, and indoor cycling workouts to massage sessions. PowerPal targets young people who are health conscious while enjoying trying various workouts and wellness experiences as well as loving to meet people and make friends.

Market Research

Macro-Environment Analysis using PESTLE

Political Factors

The United Kingdom puts a heavy emphasis on the individual’s physical activities as they save £9.5 billion in health costs each year. Sport England, a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, expends £250 million from public money and the National Lottery to support people to be physically active and play sports (Sport England, 2024). In 1996, the UK government introduced guidelines for physical activities involving suggestions on the duration, frequency, and type of physical activity, which was later updated in 2004, 2011, and 2019 (Nobles et al., 2020). Furthermore, the government has initiated programs such as “Moving More, Living More”, “Everybody Active, Every Day” and “Get Active” to encourage people to engage in physical activities.

Economic Factors

In 2022, median household disposable income in the United Kingdom reached £32,300 with an average of 1.7% increase per year since 2013 (Andrews & Croals, 2023). As of 2023, the unemployment rate in the United Kingdom was 3.8%, which was a slight decrease over the last year (Powell, Francis-Devine & Buchanan, 2024).

When drilling down to the gym, health, and fitness club industry in the UK, it is detected a stable increase in market size (measured by revenue) from 2012 to 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there was a drop in 2021 due to the impact of COVID-19, the market size started to bounce back in 2022, reaching the same level as 2017 (Statista Research Department, 2024). As of 2023, there were about 4900 gyms and fitness centers in the UK, which was a 9.6% increase from 2022. Thus, although the COVID-19 pandemic had a great impact, the gym and fitness club industry is expected to be a promising and optimistic industry as consumers are willing to spend money on it.

Social Factors

A great majority of people in the United Kingdom have developed the habit of doing exercise. In the research conducted by the UK government in 2022, over 63.1% of individuals who were 16 years old or above were identified as physically active, that is, doing exercise of 150 minutes or more a week (GOV.UK, 2024). Furthermore, it is estimated that more than four million people participate in group exercise classes including CrossFit, yoga, pilates, and spinning, which is one of the most common physical activities in the UK, owing to the sharing of fitness goals among the group (Tagliaferro, 2024). Thus, there is a strong fitness culture, particularly group fitness class culture in the United Kingdom.

Technological, Environmental and Legal Factors

Because of shifting habits of using online platforms which were accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, apps and online services were launched by tech firms or fitness studios (Gough, 2023). For example, there were health and workout tracking apps such as Fitbit and Strava, training apps like SWEAT, along with online personal trainer course platforms like ORIGYM. Environmentally, as an online platform, PowerPal aligns with people’s awareness of sustainability. However, there might be legal concerns as the platform collects and stores user data and thus should commit to data protection and privacy.

Competitive Analysis

PowerPal lies at the intersection of the gym, health, and fitness club industry and tech industry, which is still an emerging industry. Primary direct competitors are ClassPass and Gympass, which also offer access to classes from gyms, and health and fitness clubs in collaboration with the platforms through membership subscriptions. Indirect competitors include online fitness platforms such as Sweat, Yumuuv, and Aaptive, as well as offline gyms and fitness studios that deliver online services.