McFit Health & Fitness Clubs Offer New Choice
by Scott A. Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
We all know the importance of a healthy body and Thunder Bay will soon have a brand new fitness option from which to choose- McFit Health & Fitness Clubs. This facility is going into the old Shoppers Drug Mart location in the McIntyre Centre on Memorial Avenue in Thunder Bay. As you walk into the front vestibule of the 13,200 feet location there will be a nice counter on ceramic tile floor where the McFit staff will be located. The layout at the front will include cardio equipment with suspended 50 inch flat panel TVs, a full range of Nautilus type equipment and on the far wall free weights. There are mirrors along all the walls that give the ambience of a larger facility.
As soon as you come in to McFit you will swipe your key card that every member gets. The change rooms are at the right side of the gym, each with 100 plus lockers, all day lockers. “ We don’t have a set number of machines yet, but we won’t have a waiting list. It is a first come, first serve basis. We will have treadmills, ellipticals, stairmaster, step machines, rowing machines, three different styles of bikes, a stretching area with medicine ball as well as cables and weights and free weights,” said Brian Ludwigsen, General Manager, McFit Health and Fitness Clubs of Thunder Bay.“ I worked in the fitness industry before, then went to Confederation College studying marketing and went for this opportunity. It is a very easy sale here. The membership is inexpensive. The people come in here and know what they want.”
McFit Canada was started in Southern Ontario and is McFit.ca, not McFit .com The concept originated in Europe and the owner from the Toronto area bought the rights to North America solely keeping it as a Canadian operation. Thunder Bay is the third location. “ Our owner
wants to have at least 100 of these clubs across Canada in the next 3 to 5 years. The first location was in Millcreek, Mississauga is similar to this one but the layout is different in the Brantford operation,” noted Ludwigsen.
Why join McFit ? “ The reason is we are trying to attract members who are tired of paying high prices for services they don’t use. We don’t have hot tubs, sauna or steam rooms or personal trainers. We have our training programs posted on the walls. The maximum amount you pay for our memberships is 49c or 69c a day and you will never see our memberships exceed those prices. We work on a preauthorized 2 week payment plan - the green is $4.85 and orange $7.75. The green and orange members have the same access. The only difference is you get 24 guest passes, free tanning, a tee shirt, half priced drinks and access
to our other locations with the orange,” stated Ludwigsen. “We’d been looking at Thunder Bay for last 6 months and commenced construction near the end of May. We are expecting to be open by the second week of October. Our hours will be Monday to Thursday 24 hours a day, Friday 6am to 10pm and Saturday and Sunday 8am to 6 pm. We hope to have 7 to 8 staff members.”
“ This is quite an investment with all lovely equipment, the renovations and all the materials to do this. DRD Renovations, our contractor, has been excellent to work with, on time and keep on impressing me even when we had a little hiccup. We added more TV’s- 18 suspended and 6 on the outer walls and a few changes to the locker rooms with 100 plus lockers in each of the change rooms which delayed progress a bit,” smiles Ludwigsen. “I couldn’t be happier though. Many people come and will check it out when we are open. We do have promotional pricing now. They have to pay an enrollment fee of $59 dollars and the membership is an automatic withdrawal. Some clubs charge more for their enrollment fee than our full years membership.”
