Milton Keynes, UK, 2016-Jul-10 — /EPR Retail News/ — This year’s National Fitness Day, the biggest annual celebration of fitness and physical activity across the UK, will see leading retailer Argos become the headline partner.
The event which takes place for the third time on Wednesday 7th September, co-inciding with the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, is run by ukactive – the leading not for profit health body with the aim of championing the fun and enjoyment that physical activity can bring to all the family.
In 2015, 12,000 people took part in over 2,000 events organised across the country. The new partnership with Argos provides a platform to reach new audiences with ranges of products that include sports, fitness, outdoor toys, healthy grills and juicers – all aiming to help their customers lead healthier lives, and will involve its 30,000 colleagues across 800+ stores
ukactive works alongside its 3,500 members drawn from the public, private, and third sector to achieve its shared ambition of a more active nation. Increasingly, well known consumer brands – such as Argos – have been using physical activity and fitness to engage with both their consumers and their workforce.
This year’s event coincides with the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games which will be attended by cross-party peer and ukactive Chair, Baroness Tanni-Grey Thompson.
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, ukactive Chair said:
“Partnering with a nationally recognised brand such as Argos is a fantastic opportunity to promote the physical activity agenda and provide a platform to take up exercise for an unprecedented number of people across the UK.
National Fitness Day is a powerful tool to raise the profile of physical activity and the role it plays in increasing the health of our nation. By engaging people across the country we can help provide a pathway into continued involvement in physical activity.”
Argos’s involvement comes at a time when they are focussing on promoting the fun of fitness for all the family as part of their wider Healthy Living campaign.
Stephen Vowles, Marketing Director, Argos said:
“Argos is committed to helping customers achieve their well-being goals, and we are encouraged by their increasing desire to be more active, eat and feel healthier, as the demand for products like Fitbit has taken off. Through our sponsorship of National Fitness Day we want to encourage people to realise the benefits of doing a little bit more every day – walking in the park, cycling, taking an exercise class – and we will be encouraging our 30,000 colleagues across 800 plus stores to do the same.”
National Fitness Day will continue to promote and allow people to engage in physical activity on the day through free gym passes, exercise classes, outdoor events, taster sessions and a host of physical activities from health and fitness operators around the country.
Tracey Crouch, Minister for Sport, said:
“With lots of taster sessions and free events, National Fitness Day is a fantastic opportunity to encourage greater participation in physical activity, in line with our sports strategy.
“It’s great that ukactive is partnering with the private sector and that Argos will be helping to spread the message across the country to both consumers and their own workforce.
“Sport and physical activity can have a really positive impact on people’s lives, improving both physical and mental health – I hope as many people as possible get involved on the day.”
Further details around National Fitness Day and information on how to sign-up to deliver events can be found here: www.nationalfitnessday.com
Notes to editors
For more information about ukactive or to arrange an interview, please contact Stan Jackson (ukactive) on 077 477 18279 or email to: stanjackson@ukactive.org.uk or Jon Dale (Argos) on 07889 746297 or jon.dale@argos.co.uk
About ukactive
ukactive is the UK’s leading not-for-profit body for physical activity, working with over 4,000 members and stakeholders across the UK. We champion the fun, enjoyment and benefits of being active. As an organisation, ukactive facilitates big impact partnerships across the public and private sector, supporting partners in delivering their goals around physical activity. We grow and stimulate the value of physical activity to society as a whole – alongside specific sub-sectors where we have developed significant stakeholder relationships inc. social, political, economic, health, consumer, and financial.
ukactive also provides leading research and evaluation, insight and thought leadership, strategic project and stakeholder management, campaigning and promoting best practice for its partners.
About Argos
Argos is a leading UK digital retailer, offering around 60,000 products through www.argos.co.uk, its growing mobile channels, stores and over the telephone.
Argos continues to be the UK’s largest high street retailer online with around 120m customer transactions a year through its stores and over 975 million website and app visits in the 12 months to February 2016. Customers can take advantage of Argos’ convenient Check & Reserve service available through its network of 842 stores and concessions across the UK and Republic of Ireland.
In the financial year to February 2016, Argos sales were £4.1 billion and it employed c.30,000 people across the business.
Argos is part of Home Retail Group, the UK’s leading home and general merchandise retailer.
About National Fitness Day
National Fitness Day, 7th September 2016, will once again be the biggest and most visible annual celebration of physical activity of the year. It is the day to celebrate the role that physical activity plays across the UK, facilitated by ukactive and previously, the énergie Group, who are the largest and fastest growing fitness franchise company in the UK, and who founded National Fitness Day back in 2011. Realising that this is an event that would benefit with participation from the whole sector, énergie graciously ‘gifted’ National Fitness Day to UK Active in 2014. We would like to publicly thank énergie for this and are proud to now be growing the event year on year.
Just as last year, our aim to establish National Fitness Day as the most active day of the year hasn’t changed. We welcome thousands of clubs, parks, leisure centres, gyms and uk active members who will be opening their doors to welcome you for a free half hour session in your area.
We know the benefit regular exercise delivers including a healthier heart, increased wellbeing and a better quality of life. However, many of us find getting fit troubling, it becomes a challenge and it shouldn’t be – that is why we started National Fitness Day.
Research shows if you exercise in company (with friends) you are more likely to stick at it; the social atmosphere creates a positive environment which importantly helps us to have fun.
Contact:
Argos:
t: 0845 120 4365
e: media.relations@argos.co.uk
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- Retailer Argos to become the headline partner of this year’s National Fitness Day across the UK
Source: Argos