Not-for-profit wellness provider Nuffield Health will make its customised wellbeing memberships a core focus of the company’s gym chain moving forward – having been delighted with the initial results of the proposition.

Nuffield Health managing director Dr Andrew Jones said the company was confident it had found a winning combination to keep members happy during a presentation today at the European Health & Fitness Forum (EHFF) in Cologne, Germany, ahead of FIBO.

The company’s wellbeing membership - which harnesses an integrated pathway to give members regular health assessments, physiotherapy, access to dieticians, a dedicated advisor and access to online health tracking – was introduced a couple of years ago and has led to massively improved retention levels. Of the chain’s 316,000 members, those on a wellbeing membership have a 90 per cent retention rate after one year – well above the industry average – falling to around 60 per cent after the second year.

Jones said the drop off after year two showed there was still more to be done at certain points in the process, but noted the overall results are hugely encouraging.

“There’s still work to do to fine-tune the offering,” he said. “But clearly we’re on to a winner and we need to roll it out.”

With a broad spectrum of health and wellbeing services including hospitals, health clubs, corporate healthcare and physiotherapy, Nuffield Health is intensifying efforts to promote its integrated care pathways – with wellbeing memberships offering a significant amount of synergy.

The wellbeing membership is only currently available at certain Nuffield health clubs, but Jones revealed there are plans to expand the offering. He added that the proposition has proved particularly popular with older gym members, who can utilise the full package to tangibly improve their “life chances” and risks of heart disease, stroke and type-2 diabetes.

Health Club Management will be on hand throughout FIBO 2015, live reporting on the latest developments throughout the show and posting them straight to the Health Club Management website. Head of news Jak Phillips will also be live-tweeting from the event, follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

An exclusive interview with Dr Andrew Jones on Nuffield Health’s expansion plans can be read in the May 2014 edition of Health Club Management magazine, pp. 34-38.