HOTSEAT COLIN GRANT
We started with three staff and I used to hand out towels at the counter. Today we’ve got 1,100 staff so I can step back and focus on other parts of the business
Bruce Rockowitz, who also used to be a tennis player and who’d had a lot of success in business [Rockowitz is group president and CEO of global sourcing company Li & Fung]. I talked to him about my idea and he said “let’s do it together”. We shook hands in September 2001, looked for a site in October, found it in November, got the keys in December, and designed and built and opened our studio in January 2002.
How was your idea received? Everyone thought we were crazy because back then there were only a handful of yoga studios in Hong Kong, and probably only about 100 to 200 people practicing yoga. People thought there was no market, but I trusted yoga and I went for it. We spent US$1m, and opened a 6,000sq ft yoga studio. We wanted a large studio so we could teach up to 110 people in one class. It was a very different way of offer- ing yoga. Up until then yoga studios
ISSUE 1 2013 © cybertrek 2012
tended to be owned and run by yoga teachers, who were great at teaching, but didn’t necessarily have the money, the business ideas or the connections to do something bigger.
How quickly did business pick up? Within three months of opening, we had rented the rest of the floor, taking us up to 10,000sq ft. The largest studio we’ve opened to date is 35,000sq ft, with 55 showers in the ladies’ changing rooms. That does about 1,000 students a day.
Can you sum up the Pure Yoga offer? We offer a choice of up to 60 types of yoga taught by passionate teachers in facilities that allow people to work out, to sweat, or to get deep into medita- tion and different kinds of yoga. It’s not religious and it’s not like a gym – it’s somewhere in the middle; a sanctuary of strength and spirit. We have opened the door to yoga for a lot of people.
We also provide towels and mats, attractive studios, pleasant changing rooms and a nice lounge afterwards. That all creates a better experience.
What were the biggest challenges of the first few years? Being so busy and trying to man- age the quality. We started with three staff and I used to hand out towels at the counter; when you are a small company you don’t have time to step back and focus on quality. You’re so involved in the business on a day-to- day basis. Now it’s different. Today we’ve got 1,200 staff and a great team, so I can step back and focus on other parts of the business.
You also have Pure Fitness, Pure Dining and Pure Retail. How did these evolve? It was a natural extension to the yoga business. When you have 700 people doing yoga, a lot of them have part- ners who prefer to go to a gym. We
Read Leisure Management online
leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital 25
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76