Newsletter July 2008

Click here to view the July Newsletter

Welcome to the July issue of the Gladstone Newsletter!

Hello,

Catching-up with the UK market news last week, I read with much interest of the immense amount of hard work that has gone into staging the UK's first ever Youth Sport Trust (YST) National School Sport Week which started this week.

For those of you unfamiliar with the project, this is a new UK Government initiative spearheaded by amongst others Prime Minster Gordon Brown and the former Olympic athlete and National School Sports Champion Dame Kelly Holmes. The key aim of this initiative is to encourage upwards of three million secondary school students to participate in PE and school sport during the week in order to foster a keen interest in sports and exercise all year round.

As I am sure you will agree this is a commendable project and should be heartily encouraged across the UK. This major initiative, in part sponsored by one of the largest UK financial services organisations Norwich Union, is one of many programmes with the long-term objective of ensuring that 5-16 year olds are provided with at least five hours of sport per week by 2010. Interestingly, one of our customers recently suggested to us that we all need to "reward the children's physical activity with physical activity" as a means to encourage this positive trend.

As we all know, such programmes are unfortunately necessary. Recent UK Government reports claim that upwards of 10% of children entering the primary school system at 5-6 years of age are classified as obese. A worrying trend certainly, but also a superb opportunity to really work on a collective basis among the various major players within the industry to overcome this hurdle.

At Gladstone we are constantly seeking new opportunities with our customers and strategic partners to support the growing awareness of healthy eating and active lifestyles. One such opportunity is to encourage fuller participation in the sporting facilities at local Leisure Centres and Sports Accredited Secondary Schools. Gladstone is playing a key role in extending the usage of these sports facilities to benefit the wider local community through the use of intelligent Leisure Management and School Facilities Management systems and solutions.

By linking local schools with local leisure centres, we are working with a number of our clients on future plans to encourage the use of community Leisure and Cultural facilities. For example; our smart card technology, as part of a "healthy school meal/regular school activity" incentive-based programme, enables school children to gain free access to a local swimming pool, a museum, an art gallery or indeed even travelling on local buses. These access control smart cards could be enhanced through the utilisation of Gladstone's cashless transactions solutions across schools.

Our recent move into the education market, with Gladstone's OnRecord E-registration and Cashless solutions, will assist schools in encouraging children to adopt healthy eating options and to participate in regular sports activities at local leisure facilities. As mentioned in my note last month; the North West Leicestershire District Council's "Active8" scheme, which was shortlisted for an award at the MJ 2008 Achievements Awards ceremony held at the Hilton Hotel last Thursday, is one bright example in this category.

In other areas of development, we have been focusing on creating ground-breaking technology solutions to assist owners of independent private gyms. We recognise that our customers need to be able to better manage their membership base and ensure that their clients really gain the full benefits of the gym, and subsequently improve their long-term health and well-being. I believe that this segment of the market has traditionally been underserved by the market. We aim to address this issue head-on with our industry-leading technologies.

These technological advances include the new release of our versatile self-service Kiosk2 units, which can be located within the reception area of a gym or club to "fast-track" members into a club and increase customer satisfaction levels. Reception staff can be re-deployed to more fully engage with their customers on the gym floor. Maximising the presence of the web and more importantly Web 2.0, will bring the leisure sector in-line with other industries which have been transformed over the recent years.

Even though emerging technologies can bring about considerable improvements in our working life, the power of the individual to make a difference is key. So enjoy the National School Sports Week initiative - and ask your child, niece or nephew or even friends' kids - what do they plan to do in their school to support the initiative. It's an important issue that we can all do something positive about.

Kind Regards,

Dr Said Ziai
CEO
Gladstone plc

Click here to view the July Newsletter

30 June 2008