Interview with Brian Morris, CEO and Founder of the Aspria Group
Aspria's mission is to inspire its members to lead a healthy, balanced lifestyle, to enjoy every day to the fullest. Which is why Aspria offer the best in the business and continues to be the leading premium operator in Brussels. The focus on ‘holistic wellbeing under one roof’ has served Belgians well and only continues grow.
“The last few years have shown us the importance, more than ever, of taking care of our health. Every day, for over 20 years, we are proud to have welcomed more than 2,000 members and guests to our clubs in Brussels, to take care of their health and wellbeing” says Brian Morris.
The Group has installed 3 inter-related, high-end clubs in Brussels, each of them offering what is the hallmark of Aspria with varied and complementary top-of-the-range facilities: fitness rooms, over 350 weekly group classes, indoor swimming pools with relaxation spaces, award-winning spas, outdoor + indoor tennis courts, a credited children & teens programme with over 200 weekly activities, classes and holiday camps, meeting rooms, co-working spaces and social and business networking and multi-club access. All of this giving members the opportunity to enjoy all clubs at their leisure.
Pioneer of new trends
"We love to innovate, and we are ready to invest. In 2015 at Royal La Rasante, we created our Academy, reinforcing our position as the number one family club in Brussels, and later launching our signature exclusive lifestyle and wellness assessment programme, Aspria ProHealth, that allows our members to assess and improve both their overall fitness and their biological age," comments Brian Morris. At the same time, the sports area was redesigned with 15 separate zones to offer the widest variety of workouts – following our mantra of More Space, More Variety and More Expertise.
In Aspria Avenue Louise, all the effort was focused on the wellness areas, which was named in 2018 by the Luxury Travel Guide as the "Best Spa and Wellbeing Centre in Belgium". With business in mind, next investments have been done to create a new Club Class Lounge, a cosycorner equipped with sofas and armchairs and a larger meeting room for members looking to use the facilities for networking.
Arts-Loi is not to be outdone. "We also transformed it in 2018 to create innovative and functional training spaces. Located half indoors and half outdoors, this new area offers bespoke sessions and the latest equipment," adds Brian Morris. Always at the forefront of new trends, we insisted on installing a new futuristic immersive cycling studio with 50 bikes, an innovative sound and light system and a giant screen for a unique pedalling experience!
In addition, the Aspria group launched a major programme to reduce its carbon footprint a few years ago and initiatives to limit energy waste while maintaining the highest quality of service. The "Proudly Working to Zero" project launched before the pandemic makes sense more than ever, but above all it responds to Brian Morris' concern for consistency: "As a company, it is our responsibility to set an example so we are continuing our programme of environmentally friendly installations and phasing out old technologies as fast as we can.” Many investments have been made in this area: the installation of solar panels, intelligent systems for managing ventilation and temperatures in the different areas of the clubs, the purchase of more efficient bubbles to cover the tennis courts in winter, but also the replacement of the majority of halogen lights with LEDs, the use of eco-responsible products for cleaning, not to mention the installation of more water-efficient shower heads.
Brian Morris, CEO and Founder of Aspria Group ©aspria/triptyque.be
An evolution to 3 distinct personalities
Since the early 2000s, innovations and investments have continued to focus on a clear objective: to offer an exclusive range of three clubs for 3 unique experiences. A family friendly sports and wellbeing club, Royal La Rasante (Woluwé-Saint-Lambert), an adult-only oasis in Avenue Louise (Saint-Gilles) and the high-energy city-centre health and fitness club in Arts-Loi (Brussels).
Because of their location, they are easily accessible to all Brussels residents and perfect for those members who take up the ‘Multi-Club’ membership that gives them the best of all worlds, unlimited access to all 3 clubs.
"We intend to consolidate our position as a leader in the super-premium club segment in Europe and more specifically in Brussels. We continue to reinforce our 3 clubs positioning, with an investment of over €3 million in 2023” says Brian Morris.
‘Recovery’ is a trend on the rise and that we see continuing to grow over the next couple of years. That’s why we have chosen to reinforce our wellbeing offer in Aspria Royal La Rasante, with a project of €1.5 million to develop a state-of-the-art luxury spa experience in our flagship club. We have already started the redesign of the wellness and spa facilities at Avenue Louise, which represents another investment of over €500,000.
On top of this, thanks to an investment of over €1 million in the remodeling of studios in Arts-Loi, our members will be able to fully immerse themselves in yoga and meditation practice, in HIIT and other high-energy training sessions as well as in indoor cycling sessions.
“We are ready to support our members for their fitness and wellbeing objectives all over the year. We can propose them the best solutions with a dedicated experience corresponding to their needs, all under one roof" says Brian Morris proudly.
Content supplied by Aspria
