Rapidly growing JUMP! Swim Schools has commenced international operations with Singapore now online and activities scheduled in the Philippines, Brazil and New Zealand.
This is on top of the multi award-winning swim school company opening its 44th site in Australia this month. A further 50 sites to open in the coming six months signals the rapid growth of the Queensland-based franchise company as it closes in on its 100th site in just two years of operation.
The Singapore site is in Bukit Timah, an affluent area in the Central Region of Singapore popular with expatriates.
JUMP! Swim Schools Bukit Timah franchisee Manli Gong said she had been inundated with hundreds of pre-enrolment enquiries since word got out of the award-winning, Australian-based specialty learn-to-swim centre’s opening.
Ms Gong signed the first international franchise after visiting JUMP! Swim Schools Wanneroo during a recent visit to Australia with her husband David and their infant daughters.
The opening comes just weeks after the swim school provider was named Emerging Franchisor of the Year at the Franchise Council of Australia’s Excellence in Franchising Awards in Canberra.
JUMP! Swim Schools managing director Ian Campbell said JUMP!’s international presence was motivated by reputation, demand and a simple and financially secure business model.
“Our noted expertise in the field of learn to swim and infant water safety molded a reputation ripe for global export,” he said.
“Swimming is a confidence-based skill and our 44 operational sites in Australia comply with our unique competency-based curriculum that is dedicated purely to early-years learn to swim teaching.
“We see ourselves as the child carers of learn to swim. We have a low teacher on baby ratio and we are putting specialised education with metrics back into learn to swim and that relates to our success across the country.
“We are excited that children in Singapore will reap the benefits of this tailored, highly-personalised program delivered in our fun and safe state-of-the-art swimming facility. It is the perfect environment for boosting the confidence in young swimmers.”
JUMP! Swim Schools is Australia’s leader in infant swim instruction with 10,000 children learning the fun life skill.
JUMP! opened its first franchise site on the Gold Coast in late 2014 but it all began in Grafton in 2010 when Mr Campbell bought his first swimming facility.
“It was a little pool in a former brewery shed: but the moment I stepped inside, it dawned on me that this set up solved the biggest problem with learn to swim — distraction,” he says.
“Kids in big aquatic centres get so distracted they don’t achieve what they are easily capable of.
“So, I bought the business, quit my job, moved to Grafton and built the company on country values — getting to know every customer and being invested in the kids so they can leverage off confidence to excel in the pool.”
JUMP! now employs more than 40 people through head office on the Gold Coast, corporate sites, and satellite offices in Perth and Melbourne, JUMP!’s boutique swimming facilities, custom curriculum and fun, safe and calm environment that is dedicated purely to early-years learn to swim lessons is also behind JUMP!’s model of excellence and rapid business growth.
“Swimming is a confidence-based skill and we saw the need for an intimate, purpose-built facility that delivers a very personalised experience for families,” he said.
“We are the child carers of learn to swim. We have a low teacher on baby ratio and we are putting specialised education with metrics back into learn to swim and that relates to our success across the country.”
JUMP! instructors are expert in teaching babies from three months of age and just two classes are run simultaneously, numbers are capped at four per class and the competency-based program focuses on the joy of participation and parental engagement in a fun and hygienic environment.