Health and fitness club operator, Esporta, has hailed its system of handing marketing responsibility to individual club managers a success.

At the beginning of the year, the company’s head office made each club responsible for its own marketing and provided Toolbox, an online system which allows managers to create marketing campaigns for and from their own club.

So far the system has been rolled out across the UK and also to the chain’s Spanish sites, but now Esporta clubs in Germany and Sweden are calling for it too.

David Jones, marketing brand manager, said: “Clubs have different strengths and weaknesses, so it makes sense for them to be responsible for their own marketing.

“It wasn’t always easy to get general managers to buy into some of the national campaigns in the past, especially when they weren’t right for a particular club, but now they can devise any campaign they feel will suit the needs of their club,” he said. Details: See interview with David Jones, Health Club Management magazine, May 2004