Taipei Times: Briefly describe how you came to establish a chain of fitness centers across Asia.
Eric Levine: I had clubs in northern California. My partner was Ray Wilson, one of the pioneers of the fitness industry. He owned 70 Family Fitness Center clubs in [Southern] California and I had clubs in Northern California. He had always wanted to open up centers in Asia, so he said let's go on vacation and check it out. We landed in Hong Kong checked out one or two of the fitness centers there and I noticed how fashionable the men and women were and I saw that they all had Channel and Louis Vuitton bags. I said how can everybody afford that? I was so taken back by how well everybody took care of themselves that within half a day I told Ray, "I'm staying." I said the California Fitness Center is going to become the coolest and most important membership card in all of Asia and we'll have a hundred facilities within 10 years all over Asia.
It started by finding the perfect location in central Hong Kong -- all glass, ground floor so people could see and feel the energy. So California Fitness Centers started in Asia five years ago in Hong Kong. Currently we have 13 locations in Asia. Five in Hong Kong, three in Taipei, two in Seoul, one in Bangkok and two in Singapore. We merged with 24 Hour Fitness which are in the US with 280-odd clubs another 130-odd in Europe and became the world's largest global fitness chain. In total we have about 435 locations, 3 million members around the world and about 25,000 employees.
TT: Do your marketing concepts differ between Asian countries and those in the West?
Levine: The concept in Asia is very upscale. We call it "exertainment" where we've gone after the fun aspect of exercise as well as it being very fashionable and very cool place to be. Besides the fact that our facilities are the best in the world ... we've created an atmosphere which makes it super cool to be a member, super cool to bring your friends in and show off our membership card. We went after a very fashionable fitness concept being that if you're a celebrity, a movie star or a model or somebody who wants to feel like one then [California Fitness] is the place to come. Health and fitness will come as by-product of them coming to the club. If you exercise of course they're going to look and feel better from their very first workout.
But we have to capture the market in a certain way. We will get members that enjoy the benefits of fitness and they will stay on and on. But coming into Asia we found that almost 95 percent of our members are first-time users. So it's a different game. With that in mind, we have to give ultimate service.
In Europe people are used to more disciplined exercise. They realize how important fitness is. It's not new, it's part of their culture. When we came over to Asia we realized that our main target group 20 to 50 years old, after high-school they don't really have many hobbies that would [have them] exercising on a regular basis. So now is the time to step in and make it a part of the culture, and it's working.
TT: What are some aspects of the market that you have found are peculiar to Taiwan?
Levine: I found that in Taiwan people are very confident. Wherein other countries people may say "I'll come back with my friend" or "let me think about it," ... In Taiwan the people come up, we take them on a tour and people are confident enough to make a decision. They see it, they get it. There's no procrastination, [which] is really our competition. That's one of the main reasons we have three great clubs in Taiwan. And what I love about Taiwan is the people are so friendly. I think we have around 85 to 90 percent member referral to other members. That's really one of our most important numbers. That shows that we are doing lots of things that are right. We've captured the fascination and pleasure of lots of our members that are bringing in their friends. Also the ladies are very independent. They will join a fitness center without having to have a girlfriend or boyfriend come with them. They'll just come down and say show me where to get started.
RSS