Q&A
WORLD WORLDFOCUS
Urban adventure
Franck Gueguen is CEO of the newly combined Club Med Gym, in France, and Swiss brand Silhouette Fitness. He talks to Jo Talbot about the takeover, the international alliance and the urban market
What’s your professional background? I started as a stage designer at Club Med in 1976 and progressed through the ranks, including group HR director and CEO for the Pacific area. I joined the management committee in 1984 and have been CEO of Club Med Gym (CMG) for over five years.
Tell us about Club Med Gym It’s a network of clubs in Paris that targets young urban professionals, with a strong focus on innovation, particularly in group exercise. We’re number one for group exercise in France with more than 50 types of class, including 12 aqua classes, nine dance classes, and even singing and piano classes – all for wellbeing. CMG has 70,000 members across 22 clubs in Paris. The largest club has 6,500 members alone.
How many CMG sites are there? We have 74 clubs worldwide – the 22 CMG clubs in Paris, 32 sites managed by our subsidiary company Club Med Gym Corporate, and 20 in luxury hotels or within Club Med Villages, which is run separately but for which I’m an advisor. We also run the fitness industry training provider IMF.
Tell us more about your focus on innovation We work with the leading suppliers – Technogym in Europe and Life Fitness in the US. We react to what people want. For
Aside from traditional exercise classes, Club Med Gym also offers singing and piano classes for wellbeing
example, our members wanted aqua cycling so we brought it in. These sessions involve specially designed exercise bikes being lowered into the water for a group exercise class that’s easier on the joints than traditional cycling, and it’s very successful. Soon we’ll also be launching our new aqua running classes – the same thing but with running machines.
Tell us about the sale of CMG to 21 Centrale Partners in 2008 21 Partners is a private equity company that’s active in the growth of mid-market companies in France and Italy. It acquired Club Med Gym in an LBO [leveraged buy-out] in July 2008, because Club Med wanted to focus on its core business – namely holiday resorts.
How did CMG come to buy Silhouette Fitness? I met the owners of Silhouette in 2006 when I sold them our CMG club in Brussels; at that time, CMG had a strategy to focus only on Paris. Afterwards, we kept in contact because we found we shared the same business vision – a love of the urban market. For personal reasons, one of Silhouette’s owners wanted to move away from the fitness business, and so they offered Silhouette to us.
How was the purchase funded? I can’t disclose the price but it was a typical LBO. Acquisition was financed by two private equity funds: 21 Centrale Partners and its Swiss partner SEC Partners. Two banks were involved: UBS and LFPE.
Can you describe the Silhouette business? Silhouette runs 23 clubs, very similar to those of CMG – urban and hi-tech – in Geneva, Zurich, Brussels and Paris. It’s the Swiss leader, with 37,000 members; the high level of local brand recognition was very reassuring to us.
Why did you want to take on an operation in Switzerland? My main strategy, supported by 21 Centrale Partners, is to grow our business. There’s a strong consolidation process going on in our industry across Europe at the moment, and Switzerland seemed a very good first step for us given that we plan to expand in Europe.
Why was Silhouette seen as a good prospect for you? Primarily it’s a question of people, and I have a long-time relationship with Raoul Walter, the former CEO of Silhouette. Also, we’re looking to expand in large European cities and Silhouette is active in large cities. Together, we now operate 45 clubs in three countries [France, Switzerland and Belgium], we represent a customer base of 107,000 members and we expect
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