Too many Yogis?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/05/2016 (3604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This week’s closing of Bikram Yoga could be a sign the proliferation of yoga studios the last few years has overshot the market.

This wouldn’t be the first time an overabundance of operators looked to serve the fitness market — aerobics studios, anyone? — and it won’t be the last, said Michael Benarroch, dean of the I.H. Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba.

“When you get something new on the market, you get a whole lot of new (players). There are a lot of mostly small businesses, and some are very niche. What happens over time is the market plays itself out and it’s over-saturated, especially with a low cost of entry,” he said.

Things will eventually settle down, and a portion of the players will survive, and another portion won’t. Clients of the failed studios will move to competitors, which will ultimately have the lowest costs and good cash flow, he said.

With so much competition in the yoga business, it can be difficult to make a go of things, particularly when there are multi-use facilities such as the Rady Centre or the Winnipeg Winter Club that have yoga as part of a diversified offering, Benarroch said.

Bikram announced its closure earlier this week via its Facebook page.

“Despite our best efforts, we regret to say that we had no option but to close the doors,” the post from owner Cathy Huntrods said.

It added information about unused memberships will be posted at a later date.

One of the early yoga adopters was Ryann Doucette, owner of two Moksha Yoga locations in town, one on Donald St. and another on Waverley St. She also owns a third location, Modo Yoga, in Minneapolis.

As a small business owner, she would worry when new studios opened up, but she discovered as long as she focused on providing excellent service and running a “smart and compassionate” business, her numbers continued inching upwards.

“Moksha is based around community-building. More than 300 people come to the studios on a daily basis, and we offer 100 classes a week. There is something for everybody. Once people do it, they get it. It totally changes their lives,” she said. “I’ve always felt like we’re really not competing with each other, we’re playing our game. This is our own community, and we’re doing our own thing.”

Moksha’s Donald Street location is also happy to honour Bikram memberships at no additional charge, she said.

Giulia De Leo, fitness director and yoga instructor at Yoga Public, said she believes the market is served appropriately considering yoga continues to grow in popularity.

“The trend in people’s lifestyles is they want to stay active, and yoga is a great way to do it. It’s a well-balanced way to move your body. Traditionally, when studios first came to Winnipeg, is was mostly women. Now there are men who go and (sports) teams that use yoga to train,” she said.

Bikram’s problem may have been it only offered one style of yoga while other studios were presenting a wider range of classes, she said.

That’s how Marc Amphavannasouk is hoping to swim upstream as part-owner of Awesome Hot Yoga. It opened eight months ago in the space that used to house Stafford Street Hot Yoga, which shut down.

Also a longtime instructor, he believes niche operators can do well provided they offer something different.

“Most studios are big chains, and they’re required to have 70 to 80 per cent of their classes be the same thing. We have more variety. There should be something for everybody at our studio. We don’t have to follow a certain sequence,” he said.

That variety includes barre classes, featuring the use of a ballet barre to strengthen smaller leg muscles, Pilates, floor classes and Get Down on Fridays, a class where yoga isn’t taken too seriously and is backed by “fun tunes” and a different theme each week.

Benarroch said if the market is indeed over-served in yoga, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time. This sort of over-satuation has been seen before with bagel shops, which were once on every corner but have now virtually disappeared, and in sushi restaurants, a number of which have closed recently.

“Some things are trendy and fashionable. You see them come in and out. They can’t all continue because people don’t continue to consume at that level or they never consumed at that level,” he said.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca