LEICESTERSHIRE IT FIRM HELPS SET PACE FOR LEADING DIET & FITNESS BRAND

They used to say that behind every successful man there’s a good woman.

Well, in north Leicestershire, there’s a very good IT company behind an enormously successful business woman and her eponymous lifestyle brand.

Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Clubs, based in Quorn, has become a market leader in helping people to lose weight and improve their health and lifestyle since its launch in the early 1990s. Rosemary Conley herself, who was made a CBE last year, became a global fitness guru with her Hip and Thigh Diet, an international best-seller, launched in the late ‘80s.

In addition to its 2,000 weekly diet and fitness classes presented by a
UK-wide, 175-strong network of franchisees, the company offers an online slimming club, its own Diet and Fitness magazine and a range of books, videos/DVDs, fitness equipment and healthy eating cookware which is available through the High Street stores and the company’s website. Rosemary Conley branded low fat food products are also available in supermarkets.

Millions of customers had already signed up to the Rosemary Conley brand in some way or other even before the advent of the internet explosion. The company now has an increasingly vast amount of sales and membership information to organise and manage in a way that keeps the customer happy, maintains and develops the brand and maximises the potential to sell more products and services.

This is where neighbouring supplier Oak Software stepped in – with magazine subscription management, mail order fulfilment, a database to support their franchisee recruitment, plus support for Exchequer from Iris Enterprise financial accounting software package.

The partnership started five years ago when the Rosemary Conley Group made a decision to bring its data management in-house in order to have greater control over it.

Oak had developed niche market software products for the publishing, circulation and membership based business sector and they were chosen by the Rosemary Conley Group to effectively supply a software package to fulfil the group’s demand for an in-house solution that would enable them to make the most of their data themselves.

They were attracted by the Oak products – specifically Oak.SUBSCRIBE and Oak.CONTACT – and how they would allow the company to efficiently and effectively manage its subscription records on a day-to-day basis and also enable it to generate additional revenue by using the software’s marketing and client management toolsets.

“By using our specialist software the client has not only been able to handle the subscription processes associated with their magazine but also use the data for its mail order business,” says Oak director Robert Eyre.

Franchising and mail order have become significant aspects of the Rosemary Conley business with the company winning the Franchisor of the Year Award this year - the second time they’ve claimed the honour in three years. There are currently some 175 Rosemary Conley franchisees across the UK.

“Our products also give Rosemary Conley the means to keep up a regular dialogue with potential franchisees, whilst mail orders can be processed via the telephone and post,” explains Robert.

Rosemary Conley claims: “By bringing magazine subscriptions in-house, with the help of Oak Software, we have been able to provide our customers with the excellent level of customer service they would expect from such a high profile company.

“It has enabled us to have more control over our database of customers, we know who and where our subscribers are and we can contact them at the push of a button,” explains Rosemary.

When referring to the benefits brought to her business by deploying Oak.SUBSCRIBE, she adds: “Without question, for us, it has proved to be a less expensive, more efficient and more effective method of managing our magazine subscriptions than employing a fulfilment house.”

“Our philosophy is simple,” says Robert Eyre: “to develop quality products and provide a quality service that meets the needs of the customer - and to continue to innovate.”