Technogym taps new markets
Company opening new UAE showrooms and broadening focus to include home users
Dubai: Italian wellness solution provider Technogym is expanding in the UAE, president and founder Nerio Alessandri told Gulf News in an interview.
The company opened a showroom in Karama on Tuesday evening and a second outlet in Abu Dhabi will follow, Alessandri said.
The company is already a provider of wellness solutions and several training devices in the region, but mostly for corporate customers, luxury hotels, clubs, schools as well as police and military. Now Technogym is eyeing the home market for people who want high-class wellness service solutions in their own homes or apartments, Alessandri said.
Technogym's service comes at a price. For example, a designer treadmill for use at home costs around Dh60,000.
But an iPod docking station, programmable TV screen and other extras can be custom made.
Technogym provides a consultation service to instruct customers on how to use the device at home and also offers a couple of free training hours. "We are selling a concept, not only a machine," said Alessandri.
Timing
Is it wise to enter the market when many people are cutting back their luxury spending, and the daily workout isn't the most important activity for the average family?
"No, now it is the right time to invest," Alessandri insists. "It is an anti-cyclic move. We are investing when the surrounding [costs are] cheap, because we need to prepare for the time after the crisis."
In times of crisis people tend to look after their health even more, said Alessandri, because they have more time for it.
One particular illness that could be prevented by regular sports is diabetes, he adds. "In the light of a significantly high rate of diabetes in the region of 22 per cent its easy for me to highlight the advantages of our wellness service concept."
Technogym, founded in 1983 in Italy, has its global headquarters near Bologna. The company employs around 1,600 people worldwide, 30 of them in the UAE.
Fifty per cent of its 400 million euro (Dh2.16 billion) turnover is generated in Europe, where the biggest markets are the UK and Germany.
Twenty per cent comes from the Asia/Pacific region, 20 per cent from North and South America, and 10 per cent from the Middle East. Technogym was the official supplier to the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.
