How has your transition from CEO of Outdoor Fitness Concepts to DRAX UK been, and how did it all come about? Steve: Outdoor Fitness Concepts started after I was made redundant on the first day of lockdown from my sales director role –instead of being put on furlough – and decided to set up my own business. However, funding and investment were hard to come by during lockdown. To make ends meet, I worked as a delivery driver to pay the bills and put some seed money together. Eventually, I secured investment from friends, family and two great angel investors with vast industry knowledge who had helped build Pure Gym With this investment, we launched the business during lockdown, but finding key clients was a struggle and outdoor fitness is naturally quite seasonal. My background in the industry, including time as a business development director at Indigo Fitness and my years as international sales director for Government & Defence with Cybex International, helped me maintain relationships with key players. To grow and ensure we had year-round business, we needed an indoor fitness brand, so we secured the distribution for Hoist Fitness, a premium U.S strength equipment brand. Over time, we successfully executed some impressive outdoor projects, but they were sporadic, and we decided to shift focus toHoist in early 2024 and went in search of a quality cardio partner. Through our connections, we were introduced to Drax, a Korean fitness equipment brand and the domestic leader, via the COO of Hoist Fitness. This introduction led to a deeper relationship when I visited Korea in May last year. I presented to the Drax board about the UK market and its challenges, particularly for cardio brands. They appreciated the insights and visited the UK in July to explore the market further. We hosted them on a tour of various facilities, including clubs like PureGym and Total Fitness (which was already interested in our equipment), leisure trusts and boutique clubs in London. By the end of their visit, they made an offer to buy the company – written on a napkin over lunch! Over the years, I’ve seen and used a lot offitness equipment and watched many brandsdevelop, but in my opinion, the industry lacks true innovation. Drax stood out to me for their innovation, quality and passion. I was immediately impressed by what I saw at FIBO. Their equipment was, in my opinion, head and shoulders above many established brands.

What do you think made Drax keen to partner with you and your company in particular? Koreans are very people-oriented, and Drax places great value on the personalities and trustworthiness of their partners and colleagues. We presented a realistic and clearvision, focusing on achievable goals without promising the world. Despite not having atrack record with DRAX at the time, they appreciated our approach and felt that we were a company they would enjoy working with to provide the right access to the UK market. I believe it was less about the numbers and more about whether they could speed of the belt changes with the pace of the runner, so it's like running outdoors and you can set the pace. It's a patented technology and it's unique. My interpretation of AI is quite simple – you get what you put into it. DRAX have their own premium clubs in Korea called Hirax Clubs. AI manages all processes needed for the club, including member registration and management, automatic club access, locker assignment, and exercise guidance and payment. From the moment you join the club, it learns from your inputs, from measuring your body composition and blood pressure to managing your exercise programme or providing an after-work out protein shake from the vending area – all designed, programmed and built by Drax! Do you see those clubs as something that would work over here? Of course. Certainly, people go to clubs for lots of different reasons, so this will fit in with those styles of clubs where people just work with me long term as business partner.Interestingly, the Drax leadership team – the CEO, vice president and senior leadership team – and I are all of a similar age, which I believe is pivotal in our relationship and friendship. They are an incredibly talented group, some of the hardest working people I’ve ever met, yet approachable, which is refreshing in an industry that can sometimes be ruthless. How has the transition been? It’s been stressful at times. Due diligence took about four months because the Korean Government is heavily involved in monitoring international investment, making the process quite intense. While Drax was conducting their due diligence, we had to keep our business running – maintaining sales pipelines and managing existing clients. Drax is now the majority shareholder, owning 63% of the business – the remaining shares are held by the previous shareholders. Rebranding, updating marketing materials, new warehousing and logistics partners and adapting to new operations have been significant undertakings.

What is the strategic vision for Drax? You have previously said their ambition was to become the number one global fitness brand.I think that’s absolutely possible within ten years with the right partners and investment. Drax are hungry and have the resources and innovation to achieve this. The factory in Korea is a significant advantage, allowing us to compete with the largest global fitness brands. While breaking into the UK market will be challenging, our organisation is stronger as part of the Drax family than it would have been as a stand alone distributor. We’ve already made great strides by winning cardio deals with Total Fitness, which is one of the most prestigious independent club chains in the UK. This success demonstrates the added value and innovation Drax brings to the UK market. We’ve set modest targets for the next three years, but we also have a very experienced and incredibly talented sales team. My tenure is planned for five to ten years. Within that time, I’d like to see us among the top four fitness brands in terms of revenue inthe UK. With the factory’s capabilities and the team’s drive, I’m confident we can be a disruptive force and make a significant impact. What can Drax bring to the UK market? Can you expand more about the technology and AI? Our Speedsync treadmills have an auto-adjusting speed system, which means the want to go and train on their own, without distraction. As a fitness instructor for over 20 years, I think they are incredibly cool places. I don't think we're close to the UK getting a Hirax Club in the next 12 months,but it’s right at the top of my wish list. Korea is working hard on various models that can be adopted globally, so watch this space.

DRAX Fitness UK