EASING BACK PAIN IS BRAD'S SUCCESS STORY

THE opening of a second Back In Motion physiotherapy centre on the Gold Coast continues Brad Beer’s bullish plans for the chain in Queensland.

The Sorrento practice had a ‘soft opening’ last month and the 30-year-old Beer (pictured), the company’s Queensland area director, will bank on it becoming as successful as his first practice in Mermaid Waters.

The 2011 Gold Coast Business News Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist started his Mermaid Waters practice in 2006 with his own savings. He later bought into the national Back In Motion chain.

Co-director Justin Mistry has moved to the new practice from Mermaid Waters and is on the search for up to three physiotherapists to join him. New administration staff is already working there.

The company invested $250,000 in renovating the Sorrento building, with six consultation rooms plus a large Pilates exercise area.

“We needed a new practice close enough to Mermaid Waters to accommodate our growth because we were running out of space,” says Beer.

“The new centre matches the strategy of the group as it is situated in a prominent position on a busy road.”

Beer says some clients have transferred to the new practice from Mermaid Waters, which was nearing capacity with 6000 patients on file. It is the biggest in the national chain, which includes 21 practices in Victoria and another eight in South Australia.

Beer has set himself a target of opening 30 stores in Queensland before he turns 40.

Beer has immediate plans to open another franchise in Mount Gravatt in Brisbane’s southern suburbs before the end of the financial year.

He wants a minimum of five other practices on the Gold Coast.

He believes there is plenty of growth opportunity as just 3 per cent of people on the Gold Coast currently use the services of a physiotherapist on a regular basis. An increasing number of locals are learning about the benefits, he says.

“We have had a record month for the entire group and have grown exponentially in the last year at a rate of 75 per cent, while the growth was 40 per cent locally,” he says.

“We’ve moved into the bigger practice [at Mermaid Waters] and our revenue which was in the ’80s was last month $150,000.”

Beer says the growth is built on quality customer service.

"It is something our chain takes very seriously and, at the end of the day, that is what our industry is all about,” he says.

Gold Coast Business News Young Entrepreneur of the Year is open to successful local businesspeople aged 40 years or younger. To be considered, or to nominate someone you think deserves recognition, call (07) 5575 7424, or email [email protected].