EHFA published a presentation on low-cost gyms in the United Kingdom in September 2010, prepared by Ray Algar of Oxygen Consulting. It was posted in the association's news channel as a new presentation for members.
The low-cost model was the most visible change in the British market at the time: operators selling membership at a fraction of the price of a traditional club, often without a long contract, and expanding the number of people who used a gym rather than only taking share from clubs that already had them. EHFA had itself been based in the United Kingdom until it moved to Brussels at the end of 2007, so the British market was one its members watched closely.
Its answer to the pressure was the argument it made everywhere else. If price competition takes value out of a product, the difference a customer can feel is the quality of the staff, and the association's own commentary on the market made the point that every operator had to think about how it positioned its offer. Its view was that the skills and competences of fitness professionals, and their ability to deliver programmes with measurable outcomes, would be the deciding factor. Standards, accreditation and the register were how that quality was to be made visible. See standards and EREPS.