Fit for business

Healthy figures fuel gold's Gym's expansion

What do Bipasha Basu, John Abraham, Rishi Kapoor and Yash and Avanti Birla have in common? Their gym. The celeb set visits Gold's Gym in Mumbai to stay fit.

Four Mumbai centres in the last three years and 5,000 members later, the American health and fitness brand is now ready to help Kolkata shed its flab by opening a centre there.

F2 Fun and Fitness, the company that brought the US brand to India, is also exploring the opportunity to set up franchisee shops in Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal. It has already opened one fitness centre in Bangladesh. Already a Rs 18 crore venture, Gold's Gym will have 18 to 20 centres by the end of the year.

And its promoters are using a mix of company-owned centres and the franchisee route to expand. Gold's Gym story began in 2002, when three men "" Jagdish Valecha, director of the Rs 250-crore Valecha Group with interests in construction, Rajesh Advani of Mumbai's Sun-n-Sand Hotel and G Ramachandran, an investment banker "" formed a joint venture called F2 Fun and Fitness.

Commenting on why F2 Fun and Fitness was launched, company director G Ramachandran says: "We looked at fitness as a growing opportunity; Indians were beginning to appreciate athletic sportsmen and actors with well-toned bodies and awareness among the middle and affluent classes towards health and fitness was increasing."

That's not all. At Rs 700 crore to Rs 800 crore, the size of the industry was also inviting. Besides the health and fitness market seemed extremely fragmented, dominated largely by single-shop players.

To gain a foothold in such a market, the three men scouted for an international partner. Their search ended with the US based Gold's Gym which has a presence in 27 countries with 680 gyms and 2.5 million members.

Ramachandran believes that Gold's Gym's imported equipment, trained faculty and constant innovation makes it tick. The gym ensures that losing weight is not a drab affair.

The interiors of the gym resemble a discotheque or, at times, a lounge. It has a bar that serves health concoctions and there's a cardio theatre as well.

Innovative competitions held at the gym include "Spinnathon" that determines the fastest exercise-cyclist. For additional revenue, Gold's Gym outlets are rented out for shooting advertising and feature films.

Ramachandran says the partners are happy with the business as "it's an industry where you can be debt-free as you get cash upfront."

Gold's Gym charges between Rs 16,000 and Rs 28,000 a year for membership. Yet starting the business was not without its challenges.

Says Leena Mogre, Chief operating officer of the company, "The challenge was to pre-sell an American fitness brand with no touch and feel of the product."

F2 Fun and Fitness may be expanding but it faces competition from the Talwalkars gym chain that's spread out in cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Baroda, Lucknow and Kanpur.

The company operates over 25 centres and has more than 37,000 members. A partner with Talwalkars, Asha Sherlekar says the company is not threatened by new competition as "we are oldest in the industry."

On his part, Ramachandran feels that competition can only expand the fitness industry and they can battle the bulge together.