eeping fit is hard work. It is doubly difficult when the subject in question is not a person but a fitness retail brand seeking to stretch itself across the country. And yes, it is perhaps the first attempting to create some order in what is essentially a cottage industry. The 70-year-old Mumbai-based Talwalkars Fitness Studios, which has made a virtue of vanity, has gradually turned its one-city operation into a Rs 18-crore business spanning five cities and 26 centres. There�s much more to come.

Talwalkars has 21 company-owned centres: 12 in Mumbai, four in Pune, two in Bangalore, two in Chennai, one in Baroda (plus there�s one coming up in Thane). Even more interesting is the fact that Talwalkars is also the first Indian fitness brand to adopt the franchisee route to expansion, opening its first such outlet in Kanpur about five years ago. The Kanpur franchise, Talwalkars Prime Fitness, with its 4,000-sq ft, well equipped health club, has more than 2,000 members already. Since Kanpur, Talwalkars has added franchisees in Vapi, Navi Mumbai, Lucknow and Kolhapur. The company has identified New Delhi and Kolkata as its next priority stopovers.
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