The global health chain
has set up a club in Gurgaon.
Physical fitness has never
come naturally to a large number of Indians. Body forms in ancient sculptures
are well-endowed and sensuous, certainly not lean and fit.
And that India is the diabetes
capital of the world surprises few. You could blame it on the weather
here, which makes outdoor exercise a tough challenge during most parts
of the year.
However, like other national
traits (cricket and films included), the physical fitness scenario in
India too is seeing a change, though at a slower pace.
And it has caught the eye
of global fitness chains. Fitness First, which claims to be the world's
largest, is ready to set up shop in India. Its first club (this is what
it calls its gyms) has come up at Gurgaon in the suburbs of Delhi. The
second in downtown Delhi will open later this month. Mumbai and Bangalore
come next.
Vikram Aditya Bhatia, the
managing director of Fitness First India Private Ltd, says that each
of these will be a large-format gym. The one at Connaught Place in New
Delhi will be spread over 26,000 square feet, for instance. The company
plans to invest $3-4 million (Rs 12-16 crore) in each club. All told,
it has plans to invest Rs 200 crore over the next three years in India.
"We want to provide
fitness where you live, where you work and where you transit. Our USP
is scale, comfort and service," says Bhatia, who along with other
senior staff, owns 17 per cent stock in the company.
That may be fine, but Bhatia
has lost the first mover's advantage to others like Gold Gym and the
homegrown Talwalkar's. Both are now well-established brands in the market
with a rapidly-expanding presence. The market might be nascent (a McKinsey
study pegs the figure at around Rs 2,000 crore per annum, though Bhatia
feels it could be closer to Rs 2,400 crore), but the competition is
already stiff.
Bhatia, a keen sportsman
who played tennis at the national level, says what will help the chain
is its value-for-money proposition.
"What we will give
is five-star fitness at affordable prices," he says. The monthly
membership, which incidentally also allows access to any of the Fitness
First clubs anywhere in India, will be approximately Rs 2,600 plus taxes.
Globally, Fitness First
has managed to build scale, though it started only in 1992 with one
gym at Bournemouth, the UK. It now runs over 540 clubs and has a turnover
of $1.6 billion.
Bhatia's challenge is to
replicate it in India. All he needs to do is to get Indians to sweat
it out on Fitness First tread-mills and bench presses. Did we hear you
say tall order?