Zumba, Reduce will aid 30% bottomline in FY15: Talwalkars

Q: It is the start to a brand New Year and this is the time when people generally start recovering from a heavy party season and in fact most people come in to a sort of detox mode. As someone in this space who facilitates a weight loss, how does the January to March quarter look business wise, do you generally see record show in the gyms in this quarter?

A: I am also going to go with weight loss, trying to reduce 4-5 kilograms in the next 60 days and every new year I resolve that either I should lose weight or start gymming in an aggressive way. We are doing a major launch of Reduce, one of our diet plans in the next 30 days. In the first fifteen days of the year are spent in doing what is called as New Year resolution scheme. This has become a very popular scheme across India and I would like all of you to know that the first fifteen days or one month of January are among the most crowded in the gyms across India, all my 149-150 gyms in 75 towns.Q: Tell us a little more about these New Year resolution schemes that your company has launched, could you explain that to our viewers, maybe some of us maybe able to benefit out of these?A: In the health club we are offering a very unique scheme to allow people to come in larger numbers, lose weight, become fit and get healthier in life for the New Year. The scheme is a very simple one where if you become a member for three months, you can gift one more scheme of three months to anybody whom you love. So give your loved ones a good health is our way of translating the Talwalkar a health resolution for the New Year.Q: How about those value added services that you had, Zumba, Crossfit, how is this segment shaping up for you and are there any takers for these specialized services or are they hit by the slowdown?A: Value additions have been giving us an increasing amount of margin over the last one to one and a half year. We have been focusing on value addition. In the October-November-December quarter, a lot of people were taking oil massages across all our gyms and spas because the winter this year has been a little harsher, colder than normal and they must be enjoying the oil massages.

Separately, we are seeing that people are subscribing more and more to weight loss plans. We are in the process of unrolling Zumba in many more places. It is a more youth oriented programme and the youth has taken to it in a big way. Value addition continues to be our big driver. The company has withstood the recession strongly and shown probably reasonable set of numbers in one year only because of value additions.