Canada’s fitness industry is undergoing a major technological shift due to COVID-19, as owners of gyms and fitness studios jump into the digital world with both feet, hoping for a new way to keep money coming in while clients can’t.
There are some obvious hurdles to moving their operations from real to virtual, from the right setting, technology and know-how to the fact that Canadians may not have much income to spend right now. Still, some studio owners feel like they don’t have any choice but to innovate — and quickly.
“This was devastating for our business,” said Dana Cantarutti, the director of strategic operations for Spinco spin studios, with locations in B.C., Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
All of Spinco’s 15 locations across the country have been closed for more than two weeks, so in a move to create a temporary source of revenue the company decided to rent out its bikes at a cost of up to $250 per bike, per month, for three months or until the studio is able to open again.
“It was an overwhelmingly positive response,” said Cantarutti.
Revenue ‘dried up’
The company also launched an online platform with pre-recorded spin classes, called Spinco On Demand, open to anyone for a monthly fee of $29 — or free with the Spinco bike rental.
“This enables us to earn a little bit of revenue in a creative way across the country, and allows us to keep some of our staff and some of our instructors employed,” said Cantarutti.
SAANA Yoga instructors use Instagram Live to host free online classes from their homes, twice daily. (Instagram/saana_yoga)
Ontario-based SAANA Yoga also closed its doors more than two weeks ago, and soon after began offering yoga classes through Instagram for free.
“The immediate drive was to connect to our community and just to keep our community alive,” said Jacqueline DiRenzo, co-founder of the SAANA Yoga brand and co-owner of the downtown Toronto location.
The studio launched a GoFundMe campaign to help pay the teachers for their time, most of whom are contract workers.
“Their access to making money and their sources of revenue dried up right alongside ours,” said DiRenzo.
DiRenzo is considering applying for some of the business assistance the federal government is offering, such as the new Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA), a program that will offer small businesses interest-free loans of up to $40,000, but she’s wary of taking on new debt.
“It’s not relief in the traditional sense of the word, like ‘Hey, here’s a bailout,’ for example,” said DiRenzo, who worries about how loan repayment will impact her business when she reopens.
The free classes aren’t helping the bottom line either, so SAANA Yoga is exploring other online options to bring in some money.
On April 14 it’s launching a 30-day yoga challenge that includes two daily classes and other workshops using the video-conferencing platform Zoom, for $59. Front-line health care workers such as doctors, nurses, paramedics and hospital support staff can have access at no cost.
Permanent paid online offerings are also in the works, including live online drop-in classes for a fee of $6 each, or access to a catalogue of pre-recorded classes to take anytime for a monthly membership fee.
Jacqueline DiRenzo, far left, alongside SAANA Yoga’s other studio owners before non-essential businesses like theirs were forced to close. (Submitted by SAANA Yoga)
DiRenzo hopes it all adds up to enough to help her get SAANA Yoga through this pandemic and out the other side intact.
“It’s critical really…. I won’t mince my words: It’s not an easy time,” said DiRenzo.
‘Defining times’
But digital innovators stand to benefit from a captive audience of potential customers, as Canadians are trapped in their homes, looking for connection and ways to stay healthy.
A dance studio owner in Toronto sees it as his chance to go all-in online.
The Underground Dance Centre currently spans two buildings in downtown Toronto with six studio spaces, and about 230 drop-in classes offered each week, from hip hop, jazz and dancehall to Bollywood, heels and contemporary.
The Underground Dance Centre’s studios are closed due to COVID-19, but owner Aaron Libfeld is launching an online class-streaming service to get dancers into the studio virtually. (CBC)
The owner hopes to recreate the in-studio experience online, and he says he’s investing any money he can muster to do it.
“There are two ways you can look at this: that this is just going to be a bump in the road, or this is going to be the start of a new road,” said Aaron Libfeld.
The Underground Dance Centre’s new online service is set to launch on Monday, with a variety of class styles and skill levels. (CBC)
On Monday, Libfeld’s new on-demand service will go live, with a catalogue of more than 20 classes to start and new ones to be added each week. The membership fee is $39 per month, or a promotional price of $99 for a full year — which will eventually go up to $199.
The 30-year-old entrepreneur, who is also the father of a four-week-old and a two-year-old, is running on little sleep but a lot of optimism.
“I think for small business owners and medium sized business owners, these are really defining times — this will really define who you are. Maybe not for the next year, but possibly for the next 10 years,” said Libfeld.
Share your favourite new online fitness offerings in the comments below.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
