The whole of Germany is at a standstill – due to the corona pandemic and the associated lockdown. The tightened restrictions also hit the gyms. Again, that means closings for an indefinite period. But what exactly does that mean for the studios?
More family time, less alcohol, regular pumping. All popular New Year’s resolutions – but here too Corona is transverse. Not all endeavors are so easy to put into practice. Example gyms. They will remain closed for the time being, and there is no timely opening in sight.
Training break versus New Year’s resolution
Alex Stampoulidis calls January the “month of new resolutions”. The motivation after Christmas is great to work off the excess pounds from the holidays. For the fitness studios this usually means “a large increase in new members,” says the operator from Schorndorf in an interview with SWR Sport. February and March are usually “very strong months” in the fitness industry.
It’s different in times of Corona. The fitness studios in the country had to close for more than two months last spring. “I’ve heard of operators who lost almost half of their members in the past year,” says Stampoulidis. The first chairman of the Baden-Württemberg Fitness Association estimates that around five to ten percent of the facilities in the state would not have survived in 2020.
A few strokes of the paddle to go down
The Schorndorfer is also not very optimistic about the start of the year. “I have no hope for February. The hope is in March. Unless a miracle happens,” he said in an interview with SWR Sport. Should the studios not be able to open before April either, “then the good season will be over for us and there will be a lot of bankruptcies”, he suspects. Stampoulidis fears that under these circumstances “a third will have to close completely or can only continue with a significant amount of damage”.
Last summer was already “very meager” in terms of membership growth. Now many studio owners are “more or less on the verge of going under. It is a state in which you try to stay afloat and do the last few paddling moves. But the problem is also that the help simply does not come”.
“It’s seething like a volcano”
Many studio owners have been waiting weeks for extensive state aid, because fixed costs such as rent and employee payments have to be covered, even when operations are idle. “That’s a big block of costs every month,” says Stampoulidis. For November and December, the studios in Baden-Württemberg had been promised bridging aid amounting to 75 percent of the previous year’s turnover. However, so far there has been a maximum advance payment of 50 percent for November, and the money has not yet reached everyone.
For many studio owners it is an acid test: “You have to bridge two months while the fixed costs are there. Many of them have no liquidity,” says Stampoulidis. The chairman of the fitness association fears that under these circumstances further bankruptcies could threaten even faster. “This is really a catastrophe. It’s boiling more and more, like a volcano. Let’s hope nothing worse happens,” he says.
“I am disappointed with politics”
It is not only a tricky situation for the studio operators. “Older people call us, everything hurts. They care about health. And what do we do? We are closing the health centers,” said Schorndorfer: “I am disappointed with politics. I credit the precautionary measures. Human lives are definite worth more than money. But the problem has not yet been solved. There could have been more done. ”
A step towards normality
Opening the fitness studios under strict hygiene requirements is quite conceivable for Stampoulidis. “No changing rooms, no showers, no sauna, and of course a limited number of people.” He believes that “then it is relatively safe to operate in a gym”. In this way, older people can also be helped who, due to the current weather conditions, do not have the opportunity to go outside. “It would be safer in the studios. They have instructions there, it’s warm there, and they know exactly what to do to stay fit,” he says.
Stampoulidis is of the opinion that many studios “have adapted extremely well to the situation”. He cites filter and ventilation systems as examples, sufficient disinfection, clear distance rules. “Of course there are always black sheep. But you can’t punish everyone for a very few studio owners who break the rules.”
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