London Inc. Winter 2021-22 - 18

Upfront Branding
A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
As the pandemic reshaped the world, a growing physiotherapy
business took pause to reshape its brand
WHEN MATT PERRIE sees the old name of the
physiotherapy business he has owned since acquiring it in
2018 -Family Physiotherapy Group - it rings as somewhat
utilitarian and a lot plain-Jane.
" We felt it was fairly generic, " he says. " Quite frankly, it
was forgettable. "
don't " fix " people. " We help them fix themselves, and we
see the rehabilitative process as acquiring one, sometimes
several, shifts, " he explains.
Those shifts, says Perrie, can be in mindset, in the
relationship a client has with his or her body and in the
understanding of limits and strengths.
" Sometimes, it's a shift in attitude
to take ownership of the injury, " he
says. " Sometimes, it can be a shift in
narrative - the story we tell ourselves
about who we are. These shifts help
us take clients from point A to point
B - it's the whole reason we're here as
physiotherapists. "
Hand-in-hand with the new name
comes growth for the company. In
December, Shyft will open a satellite
clinic at the new OEV Health Quarters,
a collective of certified independent
health care providers on Adelaide
Street North that includes an acupuncturist,
massage therapy and a psychotherapist,
among other services.
" To have space there gives us a
chance to be in an environment where
we can collaborate with other indeShyft's
Matt Perrie, with (left) business manager,
Cassandra Noble, and physiotherapist, Alica Wilson
When the pandemic came along, Perrie, like many entrepreneurs,
took the opportunity to step back and look at things
from a macro perspective. Operating two clinics - one at 310
Wellington Road South and one at 770 South Wenige Drive
- shutting down temporarily provided pause to examine the
business, both from internal and external viewpoints.
" When we had the time to reflect and take a step back, our
branding was one thing that stood out to me that we could
really improve on, " he says. " It's been an 18-month process
and we discovered a lot, really, about how we saw ourselves
and how our clients saw us. "
Enter the new brand: Shyft (www.shyftphysio.com).
To Perrie, the new branding serves a couple of purposes.
One is to have a name and identity that clients can attach to -
something for which they can feel a little piece of ownership.
The second is a bit more abstract. When Perrie describes
the work of physiotherapists, he's cautious to say that they
18 | londonincmagazine.ca | WINTER 2022
pendent health providers, " Perrie says.
" I jumped at the opportunity, and we're
excited to see how it's going to work out
and excited to be part of that group. It's
something completely different for us. "
Perrie will also be opening a fourth facility in the Komoka
area later in 2022 to serve the growing population on the
city's west side.
" The plans for the west end were already in the works
prior to Covid, so if anything, the pandemic delayed that, "
he explains.
Perrie says he is bullish on the prospects of the physiotherapy
industry in general - partly because of an aging population
that wants to remain active ( " I think that's where most
of that growth will come from, " he says), but also because he
believes the pandemic helped remind people how important
things like personal mobility and physical health can be.
" If the pandemic taught our industry anything, it is that
physiotherapists really are an essential service. Keeping
people moving and keeping people active at every stage of
their life is important. I don't see the need for that going
away. "
KIERAN DELAMONT
http://www.shyftphysio.com http://www.londonincmagazine.ca
London Inc. Winter 2021-22

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