Harry Konstantinou is Canberra's fitness king, the brains behind the $160 million homegrown company Viva Leisure which on Thursday launches a new budget gym network called Zoo Fit, with locations planned across the nation.
With a background in IT, the former Dickson College student started his first ISP (internet service provider) business in the garage of his parents' home in Kaleen when he was 15. By 23, Mr Konstantinou had won an Telstra entrepreneur award for Dynamite Internet in 1998 when the world wide web was still evolving. Now at 51, he's in charge of an almost accidental fitness empire that he has no intention of moving from his hometown.
"We've had conversations about whether or not we need to move the head office to Sydney but Canberra is where we started and we made the decision we want to keep it local," Viva Leisure chief operating officer Sean Hodges said.
"There's not many listed companies based out of Canberra, so we actually quite like that."
Viva Leisure, which listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2019, is the second-largest fitness network in the country, worth an estimated $160 million.
The company's portfolio includes Club Lime, Plus Fitness, hiit republic, Club Pilates, GROUNDUP and Supp Society, alongside investments in World Gym Australia and Boutique Fitness Studios.
Memberships to its newest venture, Zoo Fit, will start at an aggressive $8.88 a week, with the first gyms opening in Western Australia in late July and other locations to roll out over the next 18 months, including in Gungahlin and Tuggeranong.
Zoo Fit will add to Viva Leisure's existing 510 locations, 650,000 members and 2500 staff.
The company started, almost by accident, back in 2004 with the first Club Lime, in Belconnen, and its Jamaican-accented mascot, Gymmy. (The company says Gymmy may be making a comeback.)
Harry Konstantinou's family business, the Konstantinou Group, including father Jeff and brother Angelo, built the Canberra International Sports and Aquatic Centre in Belconnen - and ended up running it.
"That was by default really, they never planned to run it," COO Sean Hodges said.
"The family won the contract to build the site from the ACT government and then they had a facilities management group lined up to run it, who pulled out at the 11th hour, so Harry had to step in and run it."
Mr Hodges, a former CEO of the ACT branch of the Royal Life Saving Society Australia, joined the company in 2013 when the company had fewer than 10 clubs.
"It's grown from this small, Canberra-based company to having a presence in every state and territory, except for South Australia and Tasmania, but we've got them in our sights as well," he said.
"We've got clubs opening every week."
Mr Hodges said it's always been at the forefront of innovation, thanks to Mr Konstantinou's IT expertise.
"Look, he's the ultimate entrepreneur. Sometimes we just have to catch up with his vision."
The latest opportunity is Zoo Fit, which Mr Hodges said was a response to cost of living pressures.
Zoo Fit memberships will start from $8.88 per week for gym access and $14.88 per week for gym and wellness access such as a sauna.
"We're well aware of the financial situation for people, it's tough at the moment, and if we can give an option that comes under that $10 mark, hopefully we can start to compete with the likes of Netflix and those other streaming services that take up a lot of people's time and instead get people to the gym," Mr Hodges said,
In what it says is a first for the Australian fitness industry, Zoo Fit will also offer a "Fit Fam" membership allowing families to train together under one membership, starting at $24.80 per week.
"Zoo Fit is part of our diversification strategy. By not limiting ourselves to one category or demographic, we're de-risking growth and building a brand that drives long-term performance for our members, franchisees and shareholders," Mr Konstantinou said.
"Zoo Fit becomes the missing piece in our portfolio strategy and allows us to serve a broader cross-section of the market."
The company was looking to start Zoo Fit in Western Australia due to "strong population growth, increasing health and wellness participation, and Viva Leisure's existing operational footprint in the state".
Mr Hodges said there was also a ready supply of large spaces for the gyms in WA.
"These Zoo Fit gyms will be big clubs, probably three, four times the size of your average Anytime Fitness or Club Lime and we had some sites in WA that fit the mould for that," he said.
"But we've got about 20 sites in the pipeline to roll out over the next 18 months."
The exact locations for the Zoo Fit gyms proposed for Gungalin and Tuggeranong have not yet been revealed by the company.
"At the moment, the big trend is strength training and that's where we see the strong demand," Mr Hodges said.
"We will have some classes [at Zoot Fit]. There'll also be some reformer [pilates] there, wellness, saunas - it will have a range of things. We're also looking at things like cold plunge, which is also popular at the moment."
And the smooth-like-honey, Calypso-inspired voice of Gymmy the Club Lime mascot could be heard again in Canberra.
"Unfortunately, a couple of years ago we took the decision to retire Gymmy but certainly - even in our strategy meeting going on at the moment - it has been discussed whether or not Gymmy 2.0 comes back in some form or another," Mr Hodges said.
In fact, Mr Hodges believed the company in its early days bedded down in the Canberra community because of two factors. The first was a large investment in grassroots sports sponsorship, which is now more than $1 million a year just in the ACT.
"The other thing was Gymmy. He really cut through and connected with people and for a long time in Canberra we weren't known as Club Lime, it was just 'Going to Gymmy Lime', that's how people referred to it."
