I am super excited to announce that we now have a formal partnership with the prospect wizard. And when I say wizard, I mean wizard. Obviously, you have a website. This allows you to convert Immediately goes to you, your sales team, or anyone else in the club instantly. MIT shows a study that if you contact the lead within 10 minutes, chance of them converting goes up 9 times that of the average. We got the Atlanta Clubs on it, Vida Fitness, Gold's Gym, Mountainside, City Fitness
Philly, College Park. Become one of the next halo companies to deploy the wizard. It's easy to use. Go to the prospectwizard.com. Get a free 30 day trial. Talk to my boy, Dave Gallon. He will get you all set up, and let the leads flow based on the wizard. Go get them. This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks NYC. I have the pleasure of bringing from across the pond in London, Peter Webb. We're
gonna talk about new form of Pilates. We're gonna talk about the growth of this category, and we are going to discuss how Pilates is going to continue to change the world and hopefully fight obesity, loneliness and diabetes. So, Peter, with that, welcome to the show. Thanks very much, Pete. Great to be with you. Awesome.
So you wanna just give us a little background on, on how you got into the space here and then we'll talk about the growth and the the impending, potential, raise to to continue to grow the studio base. Yeah. Certainly. I mean, I've I've joined the company 4 months ago as a CEO. Myself, I'm not from a Pilates background, but I've heard obviously so much about it in the industry. And I've been in the industry for 25 years and just I've always been involved in mainstream fitness, I would
say, into the cardio and strength, etcetera. And although I knew the benefits of Pilates, I'd never experienced MAP based Pilates or Reformer Pilates. And I had left the industry for 5 years from equipment sales. I've been in the industry for 20 odd years selling old commercial grade equipment. And then an email came in from a recruitment firm saying, are you interested in looking at this piece of equipment? And I clicked on it, call it fate, whatever it was, and discovered a little bit the
name Nuforma. And I looked at it, and I thought this is something new. I knew Pilates was on the up and up, continues to grow. It's the fastest growth sector in I'm sure in the US as it is over in Europe here. And this just caught my eye as being something different because it was trying to make and it is making Pilates accessible to a wider audience.
I think Pilates has been a little bit guilty in the past of being to to a certain sector, predominantly, certainly less males attracted in the in the Pilates environment. And and this just caught my eye, and I thought, why is this claiming to be different, and what is the difference that it brings? So so having said that, you know, a lot of the Pilates groups around the US, they've either customized their own reformer. They might have been on a degree and kinda
might have reengineered that. They might be on a license. So tell me what the difference is between the Nuforma unit. Are you using it for only Nuforma Pilates Studios? And when you say it's be it's becoming more accessible, it's a 3 part question. So I'm gonna make sure I remember what I'm asking. So the the third part is what makes it more
accessible? Is it place? Okay. So, if I take you back to the origins, the or the origins of Nuforma came about from Sam Kellard, our founder, had one of the biggest, reformer studios in the UK. And just like a lot of people who are on your on your podcast, invention came out of necessity because of the global pandemic closing a studio. And she openly admits I cried for 2 days, and then I thought, no. What this is an opportunity. What am I gonna do?
And she looked at all the barriers that were preventing her from having more people come to the studio, different demographics. And that was really accessibility of instructors. During COVID, you couldn't share accessories like jump boards that you add into a normal reformer. So all these barriers, she she dealt with them 1 by 1 and completely reengineered and redesigned the the reformer to
create the new former. Okay. So on the new former now, that was then placed into people's homes as a a retail site sale, or is that all just a commercial inside the studios? No. So it's it's started with her own studio, and she grew from 1 studio to 5 studios over a 2 year period. And those studios acted as a test bed because there were some on inner city London, outer London. So we had the chance to look at how different demographics were using or were
attracted to Pilates. And that allowed the product to be tweaked and changed. The biggest probably the biggest differentiator is that the the Nuforma contains a monitor that has all prerecorded classes within that. And the individual is coming to basically be on their own individual reformer and do their own workout for how they feel that day, what
they're wanting to achieve. And in our studios, we have one instructor who's always available, but their role is really just to give technique and correction rather than teaching an actual class. Got it. So there's no start time for a class in the form of studios? No. So so a member will come along. They book their new former on half hour time slots. So a problem we have in the UK, and I'm sure this is very similar in the US, is that Pilates classes are at capacity. You just
can't physically get booked into a class. Yeah. That's what we're seeing here. Majors interested is just some some classes. Some studios have a 100 classes a week. I mean, literally, those keep putting them on the menu. Yeah. And and we're talking to major multisite operators, and they say, Pilates is just going through the roof. We're doing 10 hours of back to back classes, but we can't meet
the capacity. And having people booking on half hour time slots means that it's more flexible for the user and the member of the club, and, also, that they're doing the type of workout that is unique to them and what they need to get from the from the new former rather than what the class instructor is is is teaching.
This is Pete Moore. I wanna let you in on a little secret. There's this company called Promotion Vault, and what they do is they give out rewards from retailers that allow you to incentivize your members without having to do zero down and 1 month free or giving away shakes or giving away T shirts. What you wanna do is build a rewards program that lasts, that people value, and that doesn't discount your own products and
services. So here's the deal. There's something called rewards vault. The rewards vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile. They are going to answer questions. You are gonna get those answers. You're gonna be able to target those members, and you're gonna reward them inside your club, inside your spa, and outside of the club, and outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them to pay their monthly dues, and to be
rewarded properly for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards. You shouldn't be. Promotion Vault's your answer. Trust me. This is real. You know, when you take a look at I mean, my personal behavior is I excel at classes when I am physically present around other people. And that's that one that gets me to make sure I go and I don't say I'll just, you know, I'll go when I feel like, you know, you know, I've already booked the class. I made a commitment.
But also if I'm doing a soul cycle class, you know, my 45 to 60 minutes on a on a bike in a class has definitely better metrics, you know, and achievements than when I do it at home. So are you still seeing, 1, is 30 minutes kinda like the the right times time, you know, bite? And are people going in there and kinda psychologically feel like, hey. I'm in a class. I might not be, like, you know, in cadence with everyone else, but that's not what I'm here for.
Yeah. What's the dynamics of that? Yeah. So the sessions are actually 50 minutes long. So you can book in half hour time slots, but the sessions are actually an hour long. So it's a 50 hour session, a 50 minute session, with 10 minute kind of setup time, etcetera. But, yeah, you're right. You're you're in a an environment that everyone's training, but you are, we have a a sound shower, which basically, sends
the tuition down just to your bed. So you're completely immersed in what you're doing and focused on your training, but you're with others as well. Am I on headphones or am I on, earphones plugged into the device or on Bluetooth? Or am I, like, so so so grounded in my area that you're able to kinda, like, noise, you know, to minimize or minimize, I guess. Yeah. So we have something called a a a sound shower speaker. So you have each new former has an individual
speaker. And just like when you go into a museum where they they basically bring the sound down to only you can hear it Okay. That's what we utilize. Although we have the capability to have Bluetooth headsets as well, but for our individual studios, then we use the SoundShower. So so so the the 50 minute workout, we got 10 minutes to set up, and then the 50 minute workout starts for everyone at the same time, or is it on any kind of, like,
I got here 10 minutes after you, so I'm gonna start later? Or is everything starts at the same time? Yeah. No. No. So you go you go to your monitor, you sign in, and you have a choice of over 200 different Pilates classes that you wanna do. You select what your workout is. You can pause. You can rewind. You are in control of your own individual class and in the studios as an instructor around.
The the big thing that you the big thing that with Nuforma is that everyone who's experienced Nuforma has basically realized this is a a a completely different way to Pilates. There's the the redesign of the bed, if you see the bed, there's no strings for me. There's no springs visible. Pilates reformer, if you look at a traditional reformer, to me, looks a bit like a torture torture piece of equipment. I wouldn't go near them myself personally, but this is there's no
springs. They're low level, and they're inviting, and people wanna get on them. Gotcha. So the development that's recently happened in in 24 is that people are saying, look. This this piece of equipment is unbelievable. You can't keep it to yourself. So we've made a massive pivot change to go from the studios to now making this commercially available to the commercial market. And what's the price that you're what's the price that you're trying to hit on a on a
commercial sale? And how does that rank up against the other Pilates machines? The so we're we're listing at for in US dollars around 17,000, list. But, obviously, this is a a much different type of unit than you would have as a a classical, Cadillac reformer. It's made of it's made of steel. It's called it's German engineered. It's it has the monitor, etcetera, etcetera. So and, also, we've added a a a new element to the reformer in that we have added a weight plate system.
So it has an addition of a high low pulley system on there as well because you only have the functionality in in a linear movement with with springs on a reformer. But Sam's background is also in gyrotonics. So she wanted to find a way to increase mobility and additional
movement. So we've we've increased the function of the the the traditional reformer to be much more accessible to people from all sizes, all different mobility levels, shapes, height, which can be a little bit restricted on a standard reformer. Gotcha. And then from a standpoint of the studios that you have, I can probably look at this on the web, but how many reformers do you have in a new form studio? And and is there a reason for the number you're gonna tell us? We we most of our
studios range between 10 12 beds. And that's basically because that allows one instructor with a basically changeover instructor at a halfway point during the day, so it's more efficient from a staffing perspective. We we had a lot of interest in Australia. One of our investors is from his original investors from Australia, and they've set up a franchise operation in Bondi in Australia. And just purely because of the popularity of Pilates there,
they've actually gone for 20 bed studio. Yeah. I was gonna ask you that because if you're not really running it based on, like, an instructor and, like, trying to be around an instructor or in proximity to, and it's really, like, more of a spotter. I I would presume that could be really interesting as a way to do things and and try and max out the square footage. Yeah. So so,
originally, this is only obviously from a studio concept. What we're finding now is that we're speaking to a lot of operators who are looking at this is a solution to bring Pilates out to the studio onto the gym floor. And we're put looking at 2 to 3 new formers on a gym floor concept because, again, people can't get into the studio, so they can come on to the gym floor and actually have the tuition from them from the monitor, and it's completely self-service. And I
said, originally, I'm not from a Pilates background. And when I joined Nuforma, I was like, look. You're saying I can do a Pilates class without the need for for an instructor and full tuition. And I got on, and I did a 50 minute class completely unaided. I felt confident, and I had completed my 1st reformer class without any need for an instructor, felt confident, and really got the benefits of that workout. That for me is groundbreaking.
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workouts. Higher dose, check it out. There's a wholesale code, and we look forward to helping you augment your products and services to meet the demands of your members. And, hey, let's get people happy, healthy, and sweating, and the recovery should be just as good as the workout. From the standpoint of of some of the other feedback that you get, and harkening back to, like, I if I'm doing a a workout off of a video, I I'm just I'm not giving it a
100%. You know? I'm I'm at 85%. But when there's somebody there, you know, I feel like I'm I'm I'm responsible, you know, for giving giving my all. So from that standpoint, the in your experience, taking a 50 minute, you know, Pilates class around other people that are also taking a class, even if the instructor is, you know, on a on a screen, what what does that feel like? Or, you know, did you say, like, I don't say it doesn't I don't need to be in that other type of environment, or or
what are your thoughts? Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's it's it's interesting when we have conversations when they've just people have used Nuforma for the first time, and they said, how how long do you think you've been exercising for? And they're like, feels like 25, 30 minutes because they are so immersed that the we have our own recording studio, so we are producing all
our own content. And we've Sam and and and Nikki in our education head who heads up our education have approached the the content that we display in in in our programming that they're looking at it from a instructor perspective. So the cues that you're getting, the prompts that you're getting are all as if they would be teaching a class, but based on an individual level. And that's that's where we've got the feedback of from beginners to Pilates, but also people who've been doing
Pilates for a long time. They feel like they can be a little bit more adventurous and push themselves because they're not necessarily limited by what's happening in the class and feeling they have to go with what the class is saying to do that day. Got it. And then from a from a rollout standpoint, so you're gonna be coming so you're gonna be selling the equipment to anybody who wants to buy
it. I can I'll be a Gold's Gym, and I wanna buy 4 machines, and you're like, here it is, you know, drop ship and pay for it. What if they wanna get the content as well? Is there is there a monthly licensing fee per machine? Yeah. So there's a monthly licensing fee, which we basically, we release new content every month. So for instance, we've we've just released a new back series. There's a a new series
on menopause, for example. So every month, new content's coming out, and that's incorporated within the the content fee. Gotcha. What what is that per machine, if you could disclose? That that's around about, what are we on? Dollars? So £50, £75 a month. Got it. Guidelines. Got it. And then from a standpoint, if I wanna open up a new form of Pilates studio, is that something I can do? Do you have a franchise disclosure
document out or licensing agreement? Or what's your thoughts? Obviously, you've only been on a job for a month, so I might be asking you some more long range questions. But No. So before I came on board, we've I said we already had a interest in Australia from an investor. They've set set up their 1st franchise in Australia. We've set up a master franchise agreement in Saudi Arabia. We're just about to launch
the the 1st franchise site in the UK. So because this is such a differentiator and a unique, unique offering, we are actually having a lot of franchise discussions right now. To be honest, we would like to be focusing purely on the manufacturing equipment side. So we are looking at partnerships with franchise, providers in
specific territories as well. So that's an interest to us. Yeah. What's your so do you give me some, give me some background because most people who have like, you've been in the manufacturing of equipment and sales of of equipment. Obviously, with this, you've got a recurring revenue stream coming from the 75 a month. So it's a little bit of a different, like a razor razor blade type of model, which obviously, for everybody listening here,
is a very successful model in Yeah. The shaving industry and then and other, you know, companies or Swiffer. As an example, if you wanna just take, like, products. I'm gonna I'm gonna sell you the the hardware, and then I'm gonna plug something else in. It's very high margin, which is awesome. But, you know, a lot of people that are in your position, in the US, like, with Solid Core, they're like, look. We do really well at the unique and animal level.
We're just gonna build more studios. I don't wanna sell my equipment to anybody. I wanna keep my equipment for myself and make that as, like, kinda part of, like, the competitive moat around it. Yeah. Do you coming in from a, a sales like, I I wanna rewind for a second. Every company has got a mission. That mission is decided by the stakeholders of the company
and and driven by the CEO of the company. So I would say that if you weren't the CEO of this company, that running into a manufacturing and sale of machines versus rolling out studios would be counterintuitive to me. However, given that that is your skill set, you don't really look at that and say, I don't know. I don't care what, you know, I'm I'm concerned about, like, inventory build up. I'm concerned about working capital. You
might say, like, look. I've done this many times before. I I I know how to manage that. So what kinda guides you towards being a hybrid versus saying, hey. I took this job. I'm sure when they put the job out, I'm I'm assuming it was to, like, run 5 studios and grow another 10. You know? So talk us through that. What was it to to to focus on the machine, Shel? Yeah. No. No. No. When when they put the the the the recruitment out, it was basically
because they were switching out to studios. So the studios are 5 studios. We're not gonna be opening any more studios. They have been used as a as a test bed and are now just purely show sites for Newformer. But but they make a lot of money, though, on the studio. Right? Yeah. But the mission the mission of Sam, the founder, has been to, I said, increase the audience of Pilates and change the scape of Pilates. That's her mission.
She Okay. She wants to build she wants to build build a world where Pilates is the norm rather than being a specific niche or an exception. And and Nuforma is the vehicle to allow this because it breaks down barriers. So if we can get that equipment into hospitality sector, clinical physicians, multisite operators, that's the goal. That's the goal. Well, great. Well, we got a lot of those in the US that are
that know the benefits in Power Pilates. I've had trouble in the past kind of, like, staffing that as a full time, you know, profit center. So this could be super interesting. If you're gonna be at any of the events, in the US, you know, we should definitely meet up, in person to see how we can help you. This this podcast would be a great way to get this out there and, you know, explain to people what the business model is and the opportunity.
So just, you know, in in parting here, you know, from an entrepreneurial standpoint and from leadership standpoint, any quotes or phrases that you like to refer back to or knowing that it's just somewhat early stage, but maybe it doesn't feel early stage to you? I I I think quite a quite a funny phrase we've we've got within internally is that, if if Joseph Pilates was alive today, he would have invented Nuforma. That's a very bold
statement. Very bold statement. In a good way. Because because Pilates has been around for years, but nothing has really dramatically changed about how the reformer looks and how it feels. And Joseph Pilates was all about invention. That's that's where Controlology and Pilates came from. And we think we think with Nuforma, we've we've got a differentiator that is
completely unique. When when we showed the product at FIBO, the biggest expo fitness trade expo in in Europe this year, that was the first time we'd ever taken it out of the studio and put it onto a trade expo floor. And everyone said, this is a complete game changer. This is a differentiator. It looks nothing like the other, trade show stands
that I'm seeing here. This is something different, and that's the momentum that we're we're looking to continue to spread the word of what NuPharma can bring to to help people's lifestyle get better. That's awesome. We'll look forward to, seeing the product and, and seeing the growth in the US. Feel free to use our term halo health hack and lifestyle outdoor. Trying to break that as a halo sector. And, congrats on the new position and listen.
Absolutely. Really appreciate your time and all the work you're doing as well. Thanks a lot.