Greater Manchester’s ten brand names for council leisure centres

Published on 8 January 2020 in Life, brand names, branding

Greater Manchester consists of ten different councils. Each has their own different operator used for their council owned leisure centres. Let’s look at how they brand them. Because the world has been waiting for this level of analysis.

Bolton

Operator: Bolton Community Leisure Trust
Operating brand name: Bolton Community Leisure

Like a tin of Ronseal, does what it says on the tin.

Bury

Operator: Bury Council
Operating brand name: Bury Leisure

Yet another tin of Ronseal.

City of Manchester

Operator: Greenwich Leisure Limited
Operating brand name: Better

Better than what never really gets established.

Oldham

Operator: Oldham Community Leisure
Operating brand name: Oldham Active

It’s for people in Oldham who want to be Active. Sorted.

Rochdale

Operator: Rochdale Boroughwide Cultural Trust
Operating brand name: Link4Life

We know what life is, but what’s the link? Is the link a leisure centre? Can you have a life without a leisure centre? Your guess on this one really is as good as mine.

Salford

Operator: Salford Community Leisure
Operating brand name: Salford Community Leisure

It’s leisure for the Salford community. What more do you need to know?

Stockport

Operator: Stockport Sports Trust
Operating brand name: Life Leisure

You live a life, don’t you? You want leisure in your life, don’t you? Well then, what’s the issue?

(To be fair, for a while they were called Target Fitness… We could spend hours on that one.)

Tameside

Operator: Tameside Sports Trust
Operating brand name: Active Tameside

Unlike Oldham, Tameside are after active people only. Thanks.

Trafford

Operator: Trafford Leisure Community Interest Company
Operating brand name: Trafford Leisure

Come on Trafford. Couldn’t you have come up with something better? Active Trafford perhaps? Trafford Active? Traf4Leisure?

Wigan

Operator: Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust
Operating brand name: Inspiring healthy lifestyles [sic]

On the other hand, perhaps Trafford are better with what they have. And yes, they do use lower case letters for “healthy lifestyles”. It definitely isn’t a typo.

So now you know.