The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to sit back and re-evaluate business strategies. Adapt to survive, and pivot to thrive, has become the over-arching mantra for entrepreneurs as they work to keep their business afloat in this very uncertain economic environment.
One company that has had to completely re-strategise its business is Cure.fit. Shutting down of fitness centers and gyms since the start of the lockdown led to operations of its crown jewel 'Cult' come to a grinding halt. At the time, Cult was bringing in 60 percent of the group's revenues and had emerged as the coolest player in India's crowded fitness market.
That was the story three months ago. Now, Cult has turned into a flourishing online fitness platform clocking 500 thousand sessions every day and has signed up 1.5 million new users with 50,000 paid subscribers.
With offline centres being closed, the fitness platform has focused on its online business. "The silver lining in the crisis has been our digital business. We are taking hold of new opportunities and preparing to ride out the storm," said Mukesh Bansal, co-founder and chief executive officer of Cure.fit to CNBC-TV18.
The pivot is paying off. Cult.fit that started monetising its online product in May, has already clocked a revenue of Rs 10 crore. The company is now working to add a million subscribers within the next few months and has also forayed into the US in the last month. Its application for users in US is reporting nearly 5,000 subscriptions on the platform every day
"No international company can package all the offerings that we have on a single app. Our product is very international in nature. At the beginning of the lockdown, we saw many people from US and different geographies logging in to the application. We will soon tap customers from developing countries," said Ankit Nagori, co-founder of Cure.fit
Currently, Cure.fit is providing only live classes, meditation and DiY recipes in the US market. It will soon open up services like personal training and second opinion on doctor consultation.
While the online business is booming, the offline business has come to a complete standstill. Cure.fit's fitness chain Cult.fit continues to remain shut. The company plans to continue to run its centres in its key markets in the long term and is waiting for government instruction on opening up.
"We are trying to work different scenarios for opening up of the offline business and expect to be at similar to pre-COVID levels in 6-9 months from now. Data from global markets is showing gyms working at 70 percent capacity. We expect our fitness centres to run at 50 percent capacity immediately. We continue to review costs," signed off a hopeful Bansal.
The fitness platform has put expansion plans on hold and closed operations in Tier 2 cities and UAE due to an uncertain business environment.
Shruti Malhotra (@Shruti_Malhotra) contributed to this reporting.
First Published: Jul 3, 2020 12:13 AM IST
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