The Hindu Business Line : Fitness One to add muscle; six more centres in South this year

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Chennai Feb. 26 Can losers be winners? Will anyone ever be lauded for losing? Yes, at Fitness One. One cannot miss the notice board inside the huge hall of the health club's new centre in Kilpauk, a posh locality in Chennai. It flaunts names of the top three losers of the month, with weight in kilograms they lost during the month alongside. "The awareness to keep fit is growing at a healthy pace among Indians and patronage to fitness clubs are also on the rise," declares Mr Vivek Anand, Managing Director.

As a result, the Chennai-headquartered Fitness One has chalked out growth plans to spread its wings across the country.

Started in 2004 with an equity capital of Rs 5 crore, the health club hopes to achieve a Rs 35-40 crore turnover in the year to come. At present, it has eight centres, all in the South — three in Chennai, four in Bangalore and one in Coimbatore.

"We are planning one more at Anna Nagar in Chennai. It'll be a women-only facility," says Mr Anand. The fitness chain will plan on an IPO in one to one-and-a-half years down the line when it gains critical mass, he said.

The company invests close to Rs 1 to 1.5 crore on each centre, depending up on the locality, size and facilities offered.

Apart from planning to open six to seven company-owned centres in cities such as Hyderabad, Mumbai and Kerala in the next one year, Fitness One is now looking at expanding through various business models, according to Mr Arun Kathiresan, CFO. The franchisee route is one of them. "As the potential is huge, we are planning to open at least 30 to 40 centres in the franchisee model in another couple of years," he says.

Captive gyms

The company is also keen on promoting captive gyms for corporates.

"Talks are at an advanced level with some of the leading IT companies for setting up captive gyms at their campuses. And some of them may be in the BOOT (build-own-operate-and - transfer) model too," says Mr Kathiresan.

According to him, now corporates are increasingly aware of the importance of their employees' fitness. Referring to a study, he says, a company's productivity is directly proportionate to the fitness of its employees.

"For every rupee invested in the employees' healthcare, the company, apart from increasing its productivity, also saves a lot on its medical expenses," he explains.

Talking about how some companies choose to invest in inferior quality fitness equipment, he said, "This is sadly the case with many companies. To get full benefits from your workouts without any side effects, the equipment should be bio-mechanically accurate."

At its centres, Fitness One has equipment from global majors such as Precor, Schwinn and Paramount. The centres also sport rubberised and air-cushioned flooring system so that it's easy on the legs and prevents any possible injury, claims Mr Anand.

The company also has close to 350 fitness trainers to guide its clients. "Apart from that, at any point in time, we are training at least 50 new instructors for our future expansion," says Mr Kathiresan. The biggest challenge is people and realty, he adds.

Fitness One offers different programmes and packages such as aerobics, yoga and packages such as Trim (which includes a basic fitness test, bio-chemical tests, clinical examination, dietary and nutrition analysis and so on) to suit individual demands.

It has also tied up with a number of other fitness centres around the world to offer its members a workout even when they are away from the country.