Fitness business catches on

With the ‘young corporate India’ getting more inclined towards having a ‘balanced body, mind and soul’, fitness services and protein supplement players are charting out expansion plans to cash in on the demand.

For instance, Delhi-based boutique health spa Ozone, which currently has a fitness and wellness centre each in Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Bangalore, is making new addresses across new cities – a centre each in Jaipur, Indore and Ludhiana – in the next one year with a total investment of Rs 75 crore.

“The average Indian professional is increasingly becoming health conscious and feeling the need to get into a fitness regime – a complete workout including cardio, strength and group activities such as yoga and meditation that act as a complete stress buster,” says Gaurav Makkar, head (operations), Ozone.

About 90 per cent of the corporate fitness freaks go for complete fitness solutions and 10 per cent choose to be on muscle building, Makkar says, adding that Ozone was targeting GE Capital, Microsoft, Cairn Energy, Hewitt, Pepsi and Coke as its corporate clients in Hyderabad.

“The fitness industry in India is currently pegged at between Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 3,000 crore. The corporate fitness market, however, has a big potential which has remained largely untapped. As predicted by US-based economist Paul Zane Pilzer, the wellness industry will be the next major force in business worldwide, reaching $1 trillion by 2010,” he adds.

According to Ramesh Soundararajan, vice-president (human resources), Computer Associates (CA), IT and ITeS companies are now running campaigns around 'wellness' to ensure people stay in touch with their physique as in the long-run bad health ruins productivity, increases absenteeism and the cost of insurance as well.