Busy Body and Fitness HQ locations throughout Dallas are undergoing a makeover after being acquired by Coltala Holdings.
All nine locations will eventually be renamed MyFitnessStore.com
“It won’t be like ripping a band-aid off where all of a sudden tomorrow morning you’re going to drive up and that’s all you’re going to see everywhere,” said Craig Lewin, president of Fitco Fitness Equipment. “We’re going to do it over time. People are going to see on the website ‘MyFitnessStore.com by Busy Body’. They’ll still see that Busy Body name. They’ll still have an understanding but over time we really want to continue to push that MyFitnessStore.com name everywhere. So that we can have synergy with the e-commerce side of the website.”
Coltala Holdings formed Fitco Fitness Equipment to acquire Fitness HQ, Busy Body, Fitness Unlimited, Fitness in Motion, Texas Home Fitness, and Winston Fitness.
A Busy Body store in Highland Park has been relocated to 4500 Lovers Lane in Park Cities as part of the acquisition. The signage, however, still says Busy Body.
“We were at 6721 Preston Road in Dallas, and it was a much older building, which they’ve actually torn down to try to rebuild a large CVS over there,” Lewin told The Dallas Express. “We ended up moving into what Park Cities residents call the Miracle Mile. We found a spot that was super high traffic right next to the Hudson House and Chips, which are two very popular spots. So, the traffic flows are incredible.”
Although the headquarters of MyFitnessStore.com is in the DFW metroplex, there are 23 stores statewide located in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston.
“The one thing about Dallas when you’re comparing it to Austin or San Antonio is that the market is definitely a lot bigger and more spread out,” Lewin said in an interview. “We’ve got nine stores up here and probably the ability to add a couple more in this market versus Austin and San Antonio because the markets are just a lot more compact and condensed. So, overall, as a region, we do the most amount of business in the North Texas area.”
MyFitnessStore.com, formerly known as Busy Body and Fitness HQ, will sell an array of gym equipment to residential and commercial users along with design, delivery, repair, and maintenance services.
“The majority of sales come from our stores but there is a huge opportunity with the new MyFitnessStore.com website launching that will grow e-commerce exponentially,” Lewin added.
According to company data, about 25% of business is commercial compared to 75% retail.
“What we’re seeing is not only health and wellness but also a mental health change in the way doctors prescribe more fitness activity,” said Edward Crawford, co-founder and president of Coltala Holdings. “As people were in their homes during the pandemic, one of the things that combatted depression and anxiety was to run, bike, row, and just exercise. So, people not only have a Peloton in their house but they have a rower, weights, and kettlebells.”
According to media reports, 9 out of ten people who frequently work out will stay home to exercise even after feeling safe enough to return to a gym.
“People are starting to get streaming videos and find interactive ways to work out in their home,” Crawford told The Dallas Express. “We’re also seeing more and more home builders start to provide home gyms in new houses We are getting results from this and have already seen more commercial and residential business from this trend.”
According to Lewin, the company has also experienced a spike in sales from apartment complex communities across Texas, with multi-family making up 80% of commercial sales.
“The biggest developers in the country are here in Dallas and continue to relocate to Dallas because of the enormous amount of growth,” he said. “I travel all over the country to visit other retailers and I don’t see any growth in comparison to what we see here in Texas. We feel Texas is a country all on its own. So, there’s definitely a lot of opportunity as things continue to go bonkers. I used to be able to get on the highway at four o’clock and zoom home. Now, I have to leave at 3:30 pm or I will hit traffic.”
Coltala Holdings, a Dallas Fort Worth-based holding company that specializes in acquiring American healthcare, manufacturing, and business services companies, acquired Busy Body and Fitness HQ on October 25.
“We are very familiar with the home service market,” Crawford said in an interview. “We also have a home health business, Choice Health at Home, that not only does home health nursing with LVNs and RNs in the home but we also offer hospice and therapy in the home. So, we’re very familiar with the home environment and what it takes to sell into the home and serve the home. That was one of the reasons why we saw a lot of overlap between our other holdings and what Craig and his team were doing on the service side in building out home gyms and offering to service them.”
Lewin, who moved to Dallas from South Africa, has noticed that an influx of customers shopping at the new Highland store, which opened on October 28, relocated from California.
“Everybody is blending in really well,” he said. “I have had some of the most amazing conversations with the people who moved here from California that have come into our stores. They are doing their new fitness room. They’ve taken the property that they sold in California and they’re bringing that money to Dallas. It’s getting them very far. That part is exciting. The part that is not exciting is that the taxes on my home have gone through the roof because they’re willing to spend so much money on a house.”
While Lewin lives in Prosper, Crawford relocated from Miami to Park Cities five years ago.
“A lot of people are moving here for the culture,” Crawford added. “I just got my first pair of alligator cowboy boots last week. So, we’re all moving here and adapting but we think Dallas is just an incredible place for growth.”