AusLeisure

Fitness Playground, has appointed Nick Coulman as its new Chief Growth Officer. As an experienced marketing and sales executive, Coulman will support sustainable growth for the scaling company, which has just been named ‘Multiservice Business of the Year’ by industry body AUSactive.

The multi-award-winning fitness and wellness company is about to undergo significant renovations in two of its gyms, as well as opening new locations in 2023.

Coulman comes from senior marketing roles at a range of rapidly-growing Australian companies, including disability support platform Hireup and online education provider Open Colleges, as well as at Luxottica and LexisNexis in the United States where he lived before moving to Australia seven years ago.

Coulman shares “since moving to Australia, my passion has been working at purpose-led start-ups and scale-ups, focusing on driving sustainable growth.

“My forte is looking at the whole experience and finding ways to inject growth, through better user experiences, brand-building, and unlocking commercial opportunities.”

He says his new role at Fitness Playground involves “a little bit of everything”.

Coulman adds “Right now Fitness Playground is at a pivoting point. There’s a great model, so it’s about harnessing what really works in that model – harnessing all the amazing people and what they bring to the table – then figuring out what’s going to help us build the company into the future as we scale.”

Coulman is excited about working in the industry and notes “Fitness and wellness is a huge space and it’s growing rapidly. Australians love their fitness. It’s been one of my favourite things about moving here – everybody’s always outside, getting in exercise over lunch or in the morning. It really is part of the lifestyle.”

In fact, the original Fitness Playground, in Surry Hills, is one of the very first gyms Coulman checked out when he first arrived in Australia.

“They had this epic space with battle ropes and squat stations and all these unique things. It was way better than the other gyms I’d seen in the area. Then, seven years on, I saw this role come up, and I jumped at the opportunity to work for a brand I’m truly psyched about.

“It’s amazing to see Fitness Playground taking all that Australians love about fitness and building one place where everyone can come in and do something unique. I think we’re well-placed to do a lot of innovative, unique stuff in this market, and then bring that into other markets in the future as well. We have plans for new locations that will blow people’s minds. So watch out!”

When asked what his favourite thing about working within the business so far has been, he brings up the onboarding experience and company culture.

“It’s been really cool coming in and learning everything about the brand. How many companies can you say that, as part of your onboarding, you get to do personal training sessions? And a bunch of different, unique classes. Try all these epic, award-winning gyms. Meet heaps of incredible, driven people, and come into a team that’s epically passionate about everything they do. The culture here is really something special and it’s just a cool brand and product to get involved with.

“The great thing about coming in here to drive growth is that everything is already really good. So it’s just about making it better. Taking it all to the next level as we scale. People already love the brand. They already like recommending it to their friends. I know so many people who, when I started here, were like, ‘Oh wow, I love that place. I love working out there, I love so-and-so trainer, I love the smell of the place!’

“The brand has solid foundations; people love it, and there are a lot of opportunities to make it even bigger and better in the future.”

Image: Nic Coulman

Related Articles

29th June 2022 - Singapore FIT Summit names Fitness Playground as international ‘Boutique of the Year’

17th January 2022 - Fitness Playground Entrepreneurs of the Year look to transform Australia’s fitness industry

30th August 2021 - Jetts Fitness and Fitness Playground named among Best Places to work in Australia

7th May 2020 - The Fitness Playground launches Corporate Employee Responsibility initiative

26th October 2022 - Fernwood Fitness named Franchise Group of the Year at 2022 AUSactive Awards

24th October 2022 - AUSactive Awards recognise excellence in Australia’s fitness industry

21st October 2022 - AUSactive National Awards recognise Mel Tempest’s lifetime industry achievement

18th October 2022 - Program and speakers confirmed for the AUSactive Senior Management Summit

13th October 2022 - AUSactive gains peak body recognition in Western Australia

4th October 2022 - 19 businesses pilot AUSactive All Abilities Program

---

Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?

As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.