CASE STUDY
PARKWOOD LEISURE: FITNESS
EQUIPMENT PROCUREMENT
THE CLIENT
Parkwood Leisure is one of the UK’s leading leisure facilities operators, with over 100 sites across England and Wales. Parkwood is responsible for the management of more than 80 fitness and sports facilities, 73 of which have gyms.
THE REQUIREMENTS
Thirty Six was commissioned to support Parkwood Leisure with its fitness equipment procurement. The operator was due to go out to tender for the contract, which would cover fitness equipment installations at new sites as well as refurbishments to existing facilities.
At the start of the project, Thirty Six worked closely with Parkwood Leisure’s procurement and commercial teams to create a framework outlining criteria that the chosen fitness equipment supplier would need to meet. This process took into consideration the requirements from a range of key stakeholders both from within the business and externally (e.g. customers), which resulted in the creation of a ‘brand standard’ that Parkwood could go to market with.
This was then presented to suppliers as part of the invitation to tender.
An audit of Parkwood Leisure’s purchasing behaviours was also carried out. This looked at what fitness equipment is currently being purchased, when and how, as well as warranties and life cycles of existing equipment. These are all factors that would need to be considered as part of the supplier selection process.
Our gyms are central to our offering at Parkwood Leisure, so it was vital that we considered the needs of all key stakeholders when reviewing our fitness equipment supplier and our work with Thirty Six was central to this.
Their understanding and expertise, not only in procurement but within the fitness and leisure sectors, was invaluable, and their approach ensured we took a holistic view of the purchasing criteria to establish a framework that we could confidently benchmark suppliers against.
The result is a partnership with a new equipment supplier that not only stacks up commercially but will significantly improve the offering and experience for our customers.