LL THIS WEEK
Gym gets in shape for life after lockdown
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By NEVE WILKINSON
n independent gym that opened just before lockdown last year and had to close its doors almost immediately is looking forward to welcoming members again. Chalk And Steel is a small gym in north Warrington that opened just two weeks before the first national lockdown back in March 2020. Alongside other gyms, retail, and outdoor hospitality, they’re set to open again on April 12, although restrictions will still be in place. A Covid-19 capacity, based on how many square feet the gym covers, means only a certain amount of people will be allowed in. During July to September, when
gyms were first open with restrictions, Chalk And Steel often came close to meeting its capacity and started a traffic light system, mainly using social media, to let customers know to ‘hang fire’ for an hour or come another day. At Chalk And Steel, the changing rooms have had to remain closed. Manager Tracy Thorp said: “We’ve had our changing rooms closed, apart from the first two weeks when we were open, so until we get the green light that all restrictions are lifted, we won’t have any changing rooms. “I think in our particular gym, I’m not so sure customers actually remember that we’ve got changing rooms so it will be a nice, pleasant surprise when we can open the changing rooms again.” When they first reopened in July, the gym used an appointment booking system to make sure they kept to their Covid-19 capacity and knew who was in the gym, for track and trace reasons.
When they re-open in April, they will not be introducing the booking system again but will ask customers to keep an eye out on social media for the traffic light system. “I think everybody will be reasonably eager to get back to it particularly as it’s getting closer to summer as well,” added Tracy. Tracy recalled the first lockdown, which began last spring: “At the time it was devastating because we were open for such a short period of time but the fact that we were a trading business at the time enabled us to secure grants and financial help from the government.” Unlike many other UK businesses, Chalk And Steel have been lucky enough to have kept all their staff throughout the pandemic. Tracy was hired by the directors to help with managing the staff, the stock, the admin, and the memberships. In normal circumstances, they would have continued to hire more staff but with everything going
on, they will not begin to increase staffing levels until the business is satisfied that there will probably be no more lockdowns. Although Chalk And Steel did offer full refunds to members, as they didn’t think it fair to keep people’s money without knowing when gyms were due to reopen, a lot of loyal members opted for credit time rather than refunds, meaning they will be eager to get straight back into the gym on the April 12 and soon unfreeze their memberships. Tracy said: “I’ve not got any fear about our existing members coming back, I think we’ve got an established local base of clients that will hopefully come flooding back.”
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At the time it was devastating but we were able to secure grants and financial help
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Independent gym Chalk And Steel was forced to close almost as soon as it had opened
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