Les Mills is entering the home fitness market for the first time in its 30-year history with a DVD workout that it says could help grow its in-club group programming audience.

By the end of this month, Les Mills will release a DVD based on its BodyPump group exercise program that is used in 14,000 health clubs around the world. The company teamed with Beachbody to create the Les Mills Pump DVD at-home workout.

The release of the home DVD does not mean that the pre-choreographed group exercise class company is abandoning its in-club programming.

“While Les Mills Pump is aimed at people who prefer to work out at home, we expect great spinoffs for the facilities and instructors who offer Les Mills’ group exercise programs,” says Phillip Mills, CEO of Les Mills International, Auckland, New Zealand.

The DVD will be marketed through a nationwide TV infomercial campaign and through Beachbody’s sales network, which will put the Les Mills brand in front of potentially millions of consumers for the first time, according to Mills.

“Successful television marketing of home fitness products has already worked for other group exercise brands, and we expect the same for Les Mills and all of our partners,” Mills says.

The home-based DVD is intended as a complementary product that will drive more people to recognize the Les Mills brand and the BodyPump programming. The hope is that by marketing to a home-based market, the DVD will help drive these people to classes at clubs across America in addition to improving the health and fitness of people who prefer to exercise at home.

“We’re offering our clubs and instructors fantastic new resources emphasizing ‘the group effect’ that equip our partners to use this massive new brand awareness to draw people to clubs,” Mills says. “It’s all part of our global mission of creating a fitter planet.”

The DVD is not intended to be used by instructors in their classes, according to Les Mills.

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