Health & Fitness Nordic is now Scandinavia’s biggest operator, encompassing SATS, Elixia (above and below) and Fresh Fitness
The SATS and Elixia offerings are, says Indahl, very similar and may be brought together under one brand in the future
lot of changes in the fi rst two to three years, so we tend to divest after fi ve to seven years,” explains Indahl. The acquisition of SATS, Elixia and
Fresh Fitness marked Altor’s fi rst venture into the fi tness market, and the fund’s second biggest investment to date, with the combined Health & Fitness Nordic now the biggest fi tness operation in Scandinavia and the second largest in Europe – 196 clubs following anti-trust divestments, 567,000 members as at March 2014, and a turnover of NOK2.8bn (US$468m, €345m, £278m) in 2013. So what drew Altor Equity Partners to the fi tness sector – arguably a fairly
July 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
saturated market for a fund looking for strong growth? “I think the whole notion of
saturation is wrong,” says Indahl. “The market has strong growth potential, with people nowadays much more focused on being fi t and well. The question is whether we have the right product, and I’m not sure we have. But the market itself is a very attractive one. “It’s over-saturated in the key cities
of the Nordics from the perspective of square metres of gym space, especially in the mid-premium segment, so I don’t think opening more gyms is necessarily the answer. But it’s
defi nitely a growth market if we can create the right product.”
PRODUCT OVERHAUL What, then, would that “right product” look like, both in terms of the customer-facing offering and the business model behind it? Certainly Indahl sees strength in the
business as it stands, with high brand awareness among the general public and “a very, very strong presence in the key clusters of Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo, Stavanger, to name a few of the key cities”. He also highlights the group exercise offering as worthy of mention,
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 41
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