Leveraging the Reformer Revolution
Studio owner and Director of Armature, Stephanie Sibel, saw the opportunity to grow her Pilates business by incorporating a group reformer studio and maintaining an open mind.
Pilates Journal talks to Stephanie Sibel
Running a clinical Pilates studio is no small feat. Owning and running that plus a self-contained reformer studio increases the intensity. Add to that a strength gym with a full timetable and you have your hands full. But Stephanie Sibel from Armature in Brunswick East, Victoria wouldn’t have it any other way.
With 17 years spent running Armature, Stephanie understands that remaining adaptable is critical in ensuring that her business continues to evolve, no matter what the current climate of the Pilates industry may be.
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by Stephanie Sibel
I’ve always thought that I would continue to change and adapt our business model in order to meet client demand and changes in the industry. We started with a clinical Pilates studio in 2006. We then continued to expand to more venues within the block. We’ve tried lots of things over the years but the biggest and best decision we ever made was establishing Armature Reformer, a standalone group reformer studio.
When I was doing further education with STOTT Pilates in 2010, I started to hear whispers about group reformer studios coming to Melbourne. I remember telling my partner Michael that we had to get ourselves a group reformer studio because if we didn’t, someone else in the area would do it. So it might as well be us!
In 2013, we opened Armature Reformer in a small premise two blocks up from our main studio. We started with 10 reformers and for the first year or so, I taught most of the classes on the timetable. Armature Instructors also quickly started branching into group reformer teaching.
In the first twelve months, Armature Reformer grew steadily and quickly. It wasn’t long before we outgrew the space but, fortunately, we were able to move directly across from our headquarters into a very prime corner location in 2018, around Armature Reformer’s fifth birthday.
This was a game-changer. Having the shop fronts facing each other and with similar branding brought a new unity and a larger street presence to the whole business.
Before we knew it we expanded to 12 and then 15 machines. And today we run 58 classes per week with most of the classes booked out with waitlists.
What’s so great about the reformer business is that it allows us to teach at a higher volume and generate more income per hour than our other more bespoke services. It essentially subsidises the clinical studio and the strength training venue and allows us to continue all our specialised and smaller programs without stressing about profitability.
I know that for many in the Pilates industry, there is great concern about group reformer classes diluting the integrity and principles of the Pilates method and threatening our small Pilates businesses.
Group Reformer – the amazing, the good, the bad and the mediocre – is not going away. While some reformer-only businesses may come and go over time, the group reformer format is proving more than a fad. I see firsthand what amazing benefits our classes provide clients and how much the clients just love coming, week after week, day after day.
Armature and many other studios are living proof that group Reformer classes can be taught WELL and with INTEGRITY. While we do have some more fitness-style group reformer classes, first and foremost, we teach the Pilates Principles – breath, control, concentration, etc, within focused and considered programming.
Armature classes use the reformers as they were originally intended – to create external feedback for clients to understand where they are in space, how to control an exercise, and how to move from the centre of their body.
We do hands-on assistance when appropriate. We work at a pace where principles and good-quality movement can be maintained, while still delivering dynamic and fun classes.
In the hands of skilled instructors, group reformer classes are amazing! Part of my job as Armature’s owner/director, is maintaining quality control of these classes and assisting our instructors to teach to their best abilities. This includes mentoring new instructors, reviewing classes and collating/implementing feedback from ‘secret shoppers.’ At Armature we don’t teach to a set program or template and instructors have their own styles. Clients love the variety and gravitate to the classes that work best for them.
In Armature’s case, the popularity of group reformer classes has also allowed all aspects of Armature’s many services to grow. It provides us with the financial resources to mentor and nurture instructors across all the venues, which in turn benefits not only us, but the wider Pilates industry as many of these instructors also work at other studios.
It also means we can pay instructors market value and employ them properly. The work is secure and reliable, and instructors are paid the same session rate no matter what studio they teach in, whether they teach a 1:1 clinical session or a 15-person reformer class.
All teaching skills, across the Armature venues are highly valued equally. This wage structure makes staffing more fluid and vacation and emergency covers much easier to manage. Instructors are happy to step out and teach in any venue, if needed, without worrying that their pay is going down that day because they taught in the clinical studio rather than delivered a group class. This helps with staff retention and satisfaction.
In addition to the group reformer classes, Armature also continues to maintain a successful clinical/small group model studio.
I’m proud of Armature’s clinical studio and we do amazing work with individual clients. It’s a great resource for clients seeking out the detailed, intrinsic work that studio Pilates offers. It’s also great for group class clients who may need more focused teaching or rehabilitation for a period of time.
Many new clients do a few one on one’s or a pack of small clinical sessions to build their confidence and knowledge before entering Armature’s larger group classes.
Armature offers very reasonable memberships to do a combination of a weekly clinical session plus group classes across reformer, mat and strength. We encourage clients to try all the different Armature venues (when appropriate.)
For Armature, the clinical studio is our origin story and part of our brand. And even though the level of staffing and skill needed to run it is challenging to maintain, and even though profit margins are low and difficult to scale up, it will remain a part of the business for as long as we can retain the resources to have it.
At the heart of it all, I would call myself a centrist as I deeply understand and respect the small studio Pilates business model but also see the life-changing benefits, egalitarian nature and financial rewards of the larger group style of Pilates.
I’ve been lucky to have many amazing things happen within Armature over the past 17 years. I have had to make many business decisions, some good, some not-so-good, but I’m proud of how we have always adapted and continue to evolve.
Covid was extremely difficult for businesses like Armature, but post-COVID is a completely different story. Armature is now the biggest it has ever been, and I could not be more grateful. With eyes wide open, I am hopeful for and open to what the future holds for Armature and the Pilates industry, as a whole.
With 20 year experience in teaching Pilates, Stephanie Sibel owns and directs Armature. She has been an instructor trainer for STOTT Pilates, Breathe Education and the APMA. Stephanie now also runs Armature Education, providing workshops for the Pilates community, designed to create networking opportunities and fun, interactive continuing education.