Successful cases studies
The largest fitness center chain in Latin America.
How Impulso has been helping Smart Fit expand its network of gyms within and beyond Brazil
Smart Fit is a chain of fitness centers that is part of the Bio Ritmo group, operating in the health, wellness, and physical fitness market for over 15 years. With the aim of scaling the business and capturing a larger market share, Smart Fit was created to democratize high-quality fitness.
In July 2021, the group went public with an IPO and has been increasingly valued on the stock exchange, with its market worth estimated at approximately R$18.2 billion.
The Smart Fit
Based in São Paulo, Smart Fit is a chain of gyms with a presence in all states of Brazil and several other countries, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica. With numerous locations, the group is a leading player in the gym market throughout Latin America and is the largest fitness chain outside the United States.
Challenges
As Smart Fit's plan was - and still is - to expand its presence all over Brazil and abroad, the need for growth has been increasing, leading to various challenges. For example, expanding their technology teams to meet the rising demands.
Smart Fit aimed to provide a unique experience through high-quality gyms, while keeping things simple and hassle-free with systems that offer convenience and less bureaucracy, from online services to self-service options at their facilities.
Connectivity
Another challenge they faced was developing a robust solution capable of handling all the bank reconciliations they needed to perform. With a large number of transactions processed daily by hundreds of students, involving various payment methods, refunds, and installment plans, it required a technologically advanced system.
To achieve this, they made significant investments not only in the physical gym equipment but also in communication systems, registration processes, access control, and all aspects that could be modernized.
Team Building Process
With these growth challenges and the difficulty of hiring qualified individuals in the tech market, in 2015, the group partnered with Impulso. Since then, Smart Fit has been expanding its various tech teams on multiple fronts with the company. Over 25 opportunities have been opened, and more than 500 Impulso members have expressed interest in them.
Team
Building
phase
The culture at Smart Fit places strong emphasis on active communication, proactivity, and people who are hands-on and work collaboratively.
The group values individuals with a youthful mindset, who are open to change and innovation, making it crucial to find individuals with such a profile.
To achieve this, a Context Mapping process was conducted, analyzing all the expectations for new professionals: soft and hard skills, knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and alignment of purpose.
The exchange relationship between Smart Fit and Impulso was essential to deeply understand the group's challenges and objectives.
After the Team Building phase, which involves analyzing interested candidates, conducting interviews, selections, and kick-off of the professionals, along with ramp-up support.
Impulso began Continuous Management, maintaining close communication with individuals and teams to support them through the challenges they encounter, thus ensuring their growth and engagement with the company.
CONTEXT MAPPING
An analysis of everything expected from new professionals and Smart Fit's characteristics
PRE-MATCHING
Presentation of Smart Fit's challenges to the Impulso Community
THE 4 INTERVIEWS
A journey of synchronous and asynchronous interviews for technical and behavioral assessments
PREPARATION
After defining the team, alignment of soft skills, expectations, onboarding, and training takes place
BEGINNING AND RAMP-UP
The kick-off happens, and the work officially starts. During the first few weeks, we support the ramp-up and make adjustments as needed
Successful Partnership!
Successful Partnership!
With motivated individuals, the average turnover rate for Impulsers is around 12.45% over approximately 7 years, nearly 4 times lower than the market average. This has enabled the establishment of a well-structured and high-quality team at Smart Fit.
With the teams in place, the challenge of bank reconciliations was successfully addressed using a highly developed system that continues to run successfully, handling transactions for over 2.3 million students at Smart Fit. As a result, the group continues to expand its network of gyms both within and outside Brazil with great success, having already achieved the significant milestone of 1000 gyms.
Ilson Lasmar
Full stack developer
With the teams in place, the challenge of bank reconciliations was successfully addressed using a highly developed system that continues to run successfully, handling transactions for over 2.3 million students at Smart Fit. As a result, the group continues to expand its network of gyms both within and outside Brazil with great success, having already achieved the significant milestone of 1000 gyms.
Future Plans
In addition to continuing its expansion, the group's vision is to be present across the entire health, wellness, and physical education market. This way, it can become an integral part of the lives of both individuals who frequent Smart Fit for their workouts and the lives of personal trainers and companies seeking gym benefits for their employees.
We are delighted to be part of the remarkable growth and expansion that Smart Fit has achieved, and we look forward to working together in achieving all our goals. 💪🏋️
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