Fitness Playground appoints new chief growth officer

Gym chain, Fitness Playground, has brought on former mixed category marketer, Nick Coulman, as its new chief growth officer.

The appointment comes as the fitness and wellness company kicks off a multi-million-dollar renovations in two of its gyms, as well as sets up to open new locations in 2023. The group has also been named Multiservice Business of the Year by industry body, AUSactive.

Coulman boasts of experience leading marketing and sales at a range of rapid-growing Australian companies, including disability support platform, Hireup, online education provider, Open Colleges, and Up Education’s edtech startup, eddy. He has also worked in senior marketing roles at premium eyewear company, Luxottica, and legal platform, LexisNexis, in the US, where he lived before moving to Australia seven years ago.

“Since moving to Australia, my passion has been working at purpose-led startups and scale-ups, focusing on driving sustainable growth,” Coulman said. “My forte is looking at the whole experience and finding ways to inject growth, through better user experiences, brand-building and unlocking commercial opportunities.”

Credit: Fitness Playground

Coulman described the new role at Fitness Playground as involving “a little bit of everything”. “Right now, Fitness Playground is at a pivoting point,” he continued.

“There’s a great model, so it’s about harnessing what really works in that model – harnessing all the amazing people and what they bring to the table – then figuring out what’s going to help us build the company into the future as we scale.”

Fitness Playground opened its first location in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills. It now has five locations across Sydney and Darwin. Coulman said he’s excited about working in the industry.

“Fitness and wellness is a huge space and it’s growing rapidly. Australians love their fitness. It’s been one of my favourite things about moving here – everybody’s always outside, getting in exercise over lunch or in the morning. It really is part of the lifestyle,” he said. “It’s amazing to see Fitness Playground taking all that Australians love about fitness and building one place where everyone can come in and do something unique. I think we’re well-placed to do a lot of innovative, unique stuff in this market, then bring that into other markets in the future as well. We have plans for new locations that will blow people’s minds. So watch out.”

In joining the group, Coulman said he was delighted by the onboarding experience and company culture.

“How many companies can you say that, as part of your onboarding, you get to do personal training sessions? And a bunch of different, unique classes,” he said. “The culture here is really something special and it’s just a cool brand and product to get involved with.”

Coulman said with the business in a solid position, his plans to drive growth are ultimately about making it better and taking things to the next level as Fitness Playground scales.

“The brand has solid foundations; people love it. And there are a lot of opportunities to make it even bigger and better in the future,” he added.

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