Launch of first national fitness audit

The UK’s first national fitness audit – which will profile more than a million regular users of sports and leisure facilities – is to be carried out via a public private partnership between The Leisure Database Company (LDC) and information solutions company Experian.

Launched at the Fitness Industry Association (FIA) government summit on 9 November, the first National Audit of Fitness Consumers will both provide information for the leisure industry and equip the government and local authorities with data on current and potential levels of fitness participation in Britain.

The £250,000 project will be funded jointly by the LDC and Experian and is also supported by Sport England and the FIA.

A customer profiling service, designed to help centres recruit new members and provide insight into existing participants, will be provided at all private fitness clubs and public leisure centres.

The audit will use Mosiac UK, a people classification system which separates the UK population into 11 main socio-economic groups, with 61 sub-categories.

The partnership has already started signing up operators and aims to have the first batch of data before Christmas.

The LDC plans to use the information to establish the first public private sector supply demand model, which it hopes will be available early in the new year. Details: www.theleisuredatabase.com