When in 2012 he decided to create competition for his own fitness brand, Hélder Ferreira was far from imagining that a dozen years later Fitness UP would today be one of the largest gym chains in Portugal, with 55 spaces across the country and more than 120,000 customers.
The brand is a national benchmark for gym and fitness chains, in an example of entrepreneurship that the Mayor of Famalicão, Mário Passos, praised as one of the Faces of the European Entrepreneurial Region.
In 2010, the Famalicense businessman took over the management of the Eugénios Health Club, transforming it into a benchmark in the promotion of physical well-being in Famalicão. And it was the success of the business model he implemented that made him think about ‘how not to lose the business’.
‘In such a competitive market, my insecurity was that anyone would realise that this model was a winner. It was this insecurity that made me create my own competition.’
And the competition he created - Fitness UP - ended up being the business that transformed his life.
‘Today this is a colossus compared to what I dreamed of,’ says Hélder Ferreira, as he looks at the 53 open clubs and the two that are opening soon, in Barcelos and Alverca.
The entrepreneur justifies his success with the human capital of his teams. ‘I either created places for my employees to grow or I lost them. They developed as professionals, today they are club directors, but they came from reception, from the commercial area, they were PTs,’ he explains.
The brand is committed to continuing to grow and Hélder Ferreira predicts that in the short term the brand could reach a hundred spaces throughout Portugal.
Mário Passos points to the Famalicão entrepreneur and ‘his vision of transforming a local business into a large national chain from Famalicão, as an example of this entrepreneurial territory and an example that from Famalicão we are capable of growing and giving dimension to projects all over the country and the world’.
Famalicão was also ‘a great lever’ for the growth of the business, reveals Hélder Ferreira. ‘In the initial phase I had enormous support from a number of entrepreneurs and businesspeople who supported their businesses here,’ he said.
The entrepreneur also realised that he has new projects in the pipeline. ‘We're diversifying our business and investment areas and cementing the business mentoring that I enjoy so much, helping new entrepreneurs to grow.’
It's worth remembering that throughout this year and through the ‘Faces of EER’ Roadmap, Mário Passos has made known some of the names that help position Vila Nova de Famalicão as one of the country's largest and most thriving economies and boost the municipality's entrepreneurial DNA.
