We dedicate this newsletter and vlog to our friend and industry partner John Holsinger, who sadly passed away last week. An enormous loss to so many of us. Gone but never forgotten.
READ THIS MONTH’S HEADLINES
- FIT Summit returns to live in person events with our World Festival being confirmed over 13-15 June in Singapore.
- The Winter Olympic Games 2022 have just concluded in Beijing, China and are the 24th installment of the event. This year’s Games comprise 109 events across 15 disciplines. A total of 2,893 athletes competed in this year’s event. Congrats to every athlete involved for helping create a fantastic competition.
- Global Wellness Institute reports that “Asia-Pacific is the world’s largest wellness economy, and it shrank the least in 2020 as compared to other regions. In 2020, Asia-Pacific had the largest regional wellness market ($1.5 trillion), followed by North America ($1.3 trillion) and Europe ($1.1 trillion). Together, these three regions account for 90% of the entire global wellness economy.
- App-based health and fitness platform Cult.fit acquired the India business of international fitness chain Gold’s Gym for an undisclosed sum. It now aims to expand the Gold’s Gym brand in key geographies such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan.
- Under the Horwath HTL Health & Wellness consultancy and the GOCO Hospitality umbrella, the executive team is now responsible for being either Owners/ Designers/ Developers/ General Managers of 5 of the world’s top 10 wellness resorts.
- Sangha by Octave Living, $380 m wellness community in China/ Suzhou. Josephine: developer and head of design for IMC-the owner/ Consultant: GOCO Hospitality
- Kamalaya: Wellness Director and General Manager CliveMcNish, 5 years, 2009-2014
- Sha Wellness Clinic: Operator GOCO Hospitality 2009-2013
- Rancho La Puerto: GM Herve past 4 years
- Ananda in The Himalayas: co-owner and head of dvlpt till it sold to Mandarin Oriental: Ingo Schweder 1998-2003
- UK Fitness Giant – JD Gyms, acquires Gymnation – they look forward to working with the management team to springboard the next stage of growth in the UAE, alongside further exciting opportunities across the wider GCC region.
- Huge congratulations to our friends Horizon Fitness in Oman, the country’s biggest gym owner and operators as well as distributor – they celebrate 25 years in business, a quarter of a century in helping the Middle East region become healthier and happier – incredible milestone and legacy.
- Austrian hydration startup Waterdrop raised €60M ($68.6M) in a Series B round led by Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings.
- HSBC has partnered with ONE Esports to tackle financial fitness by creating tailormade content to help players with in multiplayer online battle arena games, with useful hints and tips. The partnership kicks off as a pilot in Malaysia and Indonesia.
- A four year legal battle between F45 and Body Fit Training with the Federal Court of Australia has been concluded today with a ruling in favour of BFT. The legal action, in which F45 alleged Body Fit Training (BFT) had infringed one of its patents, was dismissed by Justice Nicholas, who ordered that the patents be revoked and that F45 should pay BFT’s legal costs.
- Excited to see an exclusive partnership with Fitness and Lifestyle Group, home of Fitness First Australia, Goodlife Health Clubs and Upstreet. With over 140 locations, they are one of the biggest franchises in Australia. The partnership will enable people to get fit, while earning shared rewards through Upstreet.
- Leading global fitness sharing platform ClassPass has released GameChangers – their campaign championing some of the most innovative and inspiring fitness and wellness studios and salons available across Australia, as chosen by their loyal customers. GameChangers features the following 20 businesses chosen by their customers to be innovative and inspiring: Barre Body, Barry’s, Blown Luxe, Bodhi & Ride,CorePlus, CycleBar, Flinders Wellness, Greenhaus Studio Wellbeing, Hustle Boxing, KX Pilates, LagreeFIT, Lean Bean Fitness, Love Athletica, Nimbus Co, One Hot Yoga & Pilates, PH Clinic, Rejuvenation Clinics of Australia, The Upbeat, Upstate Studios and Vive Active
- Congrats to World Gym Australia as they opened a fantastic new facility World Gym Busselton in Western Australia.
- Congrats to Andrew Holder and the team at REVO Fitness who celebrate their 10 year anniversary this month!
- Xtend Barre celebrated the opening of our newest studio at North Ryde, Sydney, this studio forms part of the recently updated North Ryde fitness precinct, with the studio adjacent to Anytime Fitness, My First Gym and Swim for it.
- Aquababies – Vasilis Eleftheriou first purchased an Aquababies license in Cyprus in 2013 and recently expanded into becoming a Master Franchise, opening up the sale of new franchises throughout Cyprus. Congratulations to Vasilis and Julie-ann!
- 9Round finalized plans for continued development across Asia with two master franchise agreements in Indonesia and Vietnam.
- GOFIT is very proud to announce that their first GOFIT licensee location in Singapore has started pre-sales. Their tech driven HVLP brand is poised to change the landscape of fitness in Singapore and then around the world.
- FITBOXX launches in Singapore, congrats to Ken Mok for his new gym concept in Joo Chiat.
Keep me – Ian, Olivia and the team are excited to be announcing UFIT Health and Fitness as their latest customer, first of five new customers in Feb - Congrats to Barnabus and the UFC GYM team in Singapore for launching their new Class concept studio in Singapore
- Levitise opening their second full spectrum infrared sauna at Core Collective, which is soft launching next month.
- Active Fitness, who also owns Popcicle and Sugar Boxing, launched Performance – their new personal training studio. Open house weekend 25-27 Feb.
- Singapore will host the biggest table tennis tournament in World Table Tennis (WTT) history, the US$2million (S$2.7 million) Grand Smash, from March 7-20
- Singapore-based alt meat company Next Gen Foods secured $100M in Series A funding to scale its TiNDLE plant-based chicken product in the US
- Wellteq’s first wellness case study published in a US medical journal – “The Hidden Public Health Problem of Inadequate Sleep: Deploying Digital Mobile Technology to Improve Employee Sleep Hygiene in Asia”. Great work Scott and team!
- The first Anytime Fitness Club in Vietnam is now officially open – located at 31/1 Lo M7, Midtown, Phu My Hung, D.15, P. Tan Phu. Q 7, HCMC.
- VIP Fitness Club in Laos opened its doors in Jan, with Les Mills programs such as BODYBALANCE®, BODYCOMBAT® and BODYPUMP® included in its timetable.
- ISSA has partnered with Vipin Kumar, CEO of International Health & Fitness Association (IHFA) in India
- Miskawaan Health Group is proud to announce the opening of their latest Thailand clinic located in Phuket at the premises of their Phuket partner Chivitr Health and Rejuvenation Residence.
- MindFi – The Singapore-based company announced it has closed an oversubscribed $2 million seed round to create localized mental wellness programs for APAC markets
- AIA ANNOUNCES ‘AMPLIFY HEALTH’ – A NEW HEALTH INSURTECH BUSINESS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH DISCOVERY GROUP: AIA announces a new Health InsurTech business in partnership with Discovery Group called ‘Amplify Health’. The vision is to be a leading digital health technology and integrated solutions business, improving the health and wellness outcomes of patients and communities across Asia.
- PURE offers free online fitness and yoga classes to all during Hong Kong closure period with 120 PURE Yoga and PURE Fitness classes weekly
- China’s Global Fitness Brand Mobifitness Announces Deal to Celebrate Valentine’s Day and the Winter Olympics Games in Beijing – to encourage more people to shift their focus to self-love and self-care through a healthier lifestyle.
- Les Mills spies metaverse with first VR fitness game app. The brand has teamed up with Spain-based virtual reality specialist, Odders Labs, to turn its iconic Body Combat workout into a VR gaming app available via the Quest Platform.
- Huge congrats to our friends and partners at Wexer for the launch of their new Wexer Podcast. First interview – Nad Myan, Director of growth and innovation for EW interviewed by Paul Bowman
- Congrats to our friends at Freemotion from iFIT and who announce a new distribution partnership with premium fitness equipment wholesaler Australian Fitness Supplies, enhancing their presence in the thriving Australian commercial fitness sector, supporting new and existing Freemotion customers
- Technogym and Kempinski Hotels in Jakarta partner up to create a brand new wellness experience for travellers around the world. Guests can book a “Fit Room” via the hotels’ website to enjoy innovative in-room training and on-demand workouts
- Curves and Myzone team up to help women around the world get healthier and stronger. Myzone announces a partnership with Curves North America and Oceania as its exclusive heart rate monitoring system for Curves clubs and MyCurves On Demand at-home members.
- Myzone – Feb a significant month on product development front, with release of major new app redesign and rolling out it’s next generation version 3.0 in-club software.
- The Vitruvian Google TV App is live! Designed to be paired with existing screens at home, delivering a workout experience from their world-class fitness coaches.
- FIRE Fit will debut in Oman through an exclusive master licensing agreement between EW and Horizon Fitness, the largest fitness operator in Oman. They begin with a flagship five-studio location, scheduled to open in the second half of 2022.
- Therabody new launch – a new line of compression therapy boots including customizable and fully wireless options
- Core Health & Fitness announced an exciting partnership with Sony to offer the Advagym digital platform to its customer base.
- Aussie men’s health startup Mosh has entered the New Year with $25 million in new funding to continue its mission of normalising men’s access to anything from sexual health support to hair-loss treatment. The funding includes investment from Joe Spector, co-founder of huge US men’s health platform Hims