Chennai-based health club Fitness One is diversifying into fitness equipment retail business. The company will open two stores, one each in Chennai and Bangalore, within a week. The company will sell products from US-based Precor as also its in-house brand Propel Fitness.
“This is a new retail vertical. Our market study says that the demand for fitness equipment is on the rise. Initially, we selected Chennai and Bangalore for opening stores, and will move on to other cities across the South as well,” Vivek Anand, MD, Fitness One, told Indiaretailing.
The company is targeting Rs 40 crore revenue this fiscal.
The company recently ventured into the home gym segment. Elaborating on this, Anand said the concept is all about delivering fitness at one’s doorstep. “In today’s busy life, nobody has the time to visit the gym for regular workouts. Fitness One will go to his home and install and maintain fitness equipment at home, and will also depute a trainer on a daily basis.”
The company is also setting up captive gyms for corporates. It recently set up one for Saint-Gobain Glass at Sriperumbudur. Earlier, it had opened a captive gym for Cognizant Technology at Taramani in Chennai. Fitness One is running this 7,000 square feet gym on a turnkey basis.
At present, the brand has nine company-owned outlets, four each in Chennai and Bangalore, and one in Coimbatore. Five more outlets will open in Tirupur, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad within the next two months, through franchisee route.
Fitness One offers programmes ranging from gym, aerobics, yoga and meditation to dancercise and weight management, and is valued at Rs 80 crore ($20 million). Mauritius-based India Equity Growth Fund, part of Reliance Asset Management Co., Mauritius, has 4.5 per cent stake in the company.
– Vishnu Rageev R, Bangalore Bureau
