Hélder Ferreira

1. Tell us a little bit about your journey and about your work experience. How did your interest in the fitness industry come about ?

At age 17 I was hired to a Health Club as a receptionist who helped me participate in the running of a fitness club. During the first years I shared my life with this function and a degree in Management that gave me the right to communicate with the function and the club.

After ascending Club Manager and among many senseless attempts to become a viable club I just resigned. Next is a project in another business area and I return to fitness two years later and for the company to provide administration services, but this time with a space exploration cession contract.

After that, it will not be difficult to guess, many hours of work, a lot of dedication, a little care and a little history that was always present next to me and a clear vision that we had for the future of the company. It was necessary to do more and better that they could escape the "thousandth chance."

2. The Fitness Up Group presents services at prices up to 70% lower than the price practiced in the market. Why did you create Fitness Up ? What Fitness Up do and what is the main advantage of adopting a low cost strategy ?

In the first instance I created Fitness UP to take advantage of the trend that in mid-2012 was born in the Fitness market, particularly in Low-Cost.

But when I thought of the concept behind Fitness UP I did not expect it to be so well-accepted by the market that it exploded as it exploded.

Of course, the only way to be profitable is to have a highly committed team with results.

3. With the increasing competitiveness of the Fitness sector, the importance of designing strategies and tactics to prevent the loss of customers grows. How do you see the Fitness industry in Portugal and in the World ? What are your ambitions for the future of Fitness Up Group?

The industry will continue to grow not only in Portugal but throughout the world. However, this growth is accompanied by the emergence of new and better trained operators, so that current operators to remain competitive will have to constantly update and monitor trends in the sector or be swiftly swallowed.

In the case of Fitness UP we humbly continue to pursue a dream, to become a reference in the sector and hence we are committed to comply with the growth plan that we propose. We want to grow in quantity and quality, always aware of the challenges that lie ahead. I am personally committed to the brand expansion plan but even more so with the plan to create a solid structure that will allow us to face these growth challenges.

4. The social environment is related to the relationships established in the gym, between clients or employee-client, and the vision of a space not only for exercising but also for socializing and recreation. How does Fitness Up Group provide this environment to its customers? What strategies have you adopted to keep your customers loyal?

The entire Fitness UP concept is geared towards human relationships. We are constantly organizing events that promote the club's social energy, ranging from simple dinners to complex Cross training championships.

We are not a group of people who work or train in a gym, we are a culture, we are a way of being in life. We feel we really are a Tribe. It is this feeling that unites us, team and customers and that make us the brand that we are today.

5. Adopting new technologies in gyms creates value for the customer who now has no time and is more impatient. What is your opinion on this statement. What advice would you give to the reader who is considering opening a gym?

Today's customer is looking for simplicity and speed. The new technologies bring this same simplicity and speed because they give the client more and better ideas leaving the limited time left to do what they really like.

For those who want to open a gym I recommend that you leave the bureaucracy exclusively for the machines and focus on human relations.

6. The use of self service kiosks, digital billboards and other technological equipment is increasingly common in gyms. How has PARTTEAM & OEMKIOSKS technology been contributing to the development of Fitness Up Group? What do you think about the PARTTEAM & OEMKIOSKS company?

PARTTEAM & OEMKIOSKS has been one of the great strategic partners of the brand since it has been an enormous facilitator of processes that in the past were done by manual way. Today we are focused only on growth and not on bureaucracy . And as we are focused on being the best, we have, of course, chosen the best !