DC Leisure

DC Leisure – Steve Philpott CEO

Introduction

• Leisure Management Contractor

• Largest UK leisure centre operator

• 31 Councils - 110 sites

• 6,500 staff - £100m turnover

• Largest UK pool operator - 110 pools in 71 sites

• ASA “Operator of the year” 2004-2007

DC Leisure – Free Swimming

Swim for Free

Friday,  June 06, 2008

By GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON GORDON Brown will today promise free swimming for 20 million – in a drive to get Britain top of world sport. The PM will scrap public pool charges for under-16s and over-60s. He will vow to get millions more playing sport at all levels to give Brits a better chance of winning competitions like the Olympics. Extra coaching will be provided for 14 to 16-year-

olds to ensure they keep playing sports.

DC Leisure – Free Swimming

• Our mindset: A major opportunity

• Pro-active approach

• 29 councils with pools

• 25 (86%) participating in 60+

• 19 (66%) participating in 16 and under

• £2.8m revenue funding p.a.

DC Leisure – Free Swimming

Why haven’t all councils participated?

• A flawed mechanic

• Funding allocated on a per head basis

• Our most successful pools therefore under-funded

• The main cost = loss of our normal income

• The more successful our pools have been historically, the greater the shortfall in funding

The scheme has penalised success

Not enough time to engage PCTs & other funders

DC Leisure – Free Swimming

Registration Form

Data capture is key

Ethnicity, disability, age, gender

Parents details

Current swimmer or not

Data Capture/Measurement

• Registrations: 40,000 after 2 weeks (started March 16)

• Ethnicity, disability, age, gender, parents details

• Current swimmer or not

• But no base data for comparison

• Will use Active People/GHS

• Cross –selling opportunity

Cross-Selling Opportunity

• Welcome pack when registering - badminton, over 60s clubs, kids dry programmes,

holiday activities

• Re-programming pools - a huge opportunity to drive change

- under continuous review

- pool specific

- developing pathways from free swimming

• Secondary spend - swim gear - a distress purchase

- food & drink, specific offers & re-siting vending

Previous free swimming experience

• Exeter, Halton and several holiday schemes

• Capacity management challenge

• Standards challenge

• Membership cards can be used to manage disruptive customers

• Reduced adult usage without programming changes

• Usage increases range from +10% to +250%

Operational Planning

• Registration

• Staff on reception, queue management

• Operational Standards - cleaning, managing more kids

• 16p per bather incremental cost (water, chemicals, heating)

DC Leisure – Free Swimming

Reinforces

“Value for Money”

Low cost family leisure activity