Founder of Homefitness, Erwin Woon
A growing interest in health and fitness has been the trend in recent years, especially in Singapore where fitness programs has been popping up near corporate spots, places like Tanjong Pagar, and even mall plazas where fitness trainers would lead a contingent of people in basic aerobics or static cycling. As people get more affluent, the focus on earning money turns to staying healthy and fit in order to be able to properly spend their hard earned efforts.
A familiar name in Singaporean circles established in 2013 by Mr Erwin Woon, Homefitness started off on e-commerce platforms, providing a range of affordable gym equipment for residential customers during a time when gym equipment used to cost 3 to 4 times of Homefitness’ pricings.
During the past five years, Homefitness has been bringing in bigger and better brands of gym equipment to Singapore. Being an e-commerce entity, their business has skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic when people had to work from home, and they even got into the headlines of reputable news outlets such as The Straits Times and Channel News Asia. They initially had plans to open a retail space at Centerpoint Orchard, but the pandemic had them change their mind due to concerns of customer traffic.
Homefitness provides Business to Business services as one of Singapore’s biggest suppliers of gym equipment, ranging from government sectors to educational institutions and even business corporations. They provide gym equipment rental services even before the pandemic hits, creating a business compatible with Stay-Home policies which aligned well with the Circuit Breaker periods. Instead of buying, people prefer to rent items on a non-permanent basis, Mr Woon finds this service in Singapore especially smooth due to a proper judicial system that helps with setting up a good deposit plan.
What Homefitness provides are quality and reputable equipment, notably from BH Fitness and Tufffstuff. Many businesses include hospitals, corporations and others rent BH equipment to provide their employees with a fitness station. Horizon Fitness is another brand carried by Homefitness for home distribution, as they offer a good warranty compared to other brands, and is one of their top-sellers in the market. They also provide quality boxing gloves from RDX, a brand endorsed by Boxing’s World Heavyweight Champion Anthony Joshua.
Mr Woon’s journey began with his own experience in athletics. A former representative for Singapore, Mr Woon delved into his passion for fitness, thus starting up a company where he could work closely with his area of interest. Starting from scratch, Mr Woon was a pioneer in the field of equipment rental when a golden opportunity presented itself with the closure of Califonia Fitness, an event which allowed Homefitness to purchase Califonia’s equipment for their own usage.
Mr Woon’s focus also made Homefitness proficient in both corporate and individual end user marketing. Some of the difficulties encountered initially was the lack of manpower. Back in the starting days the lack of local courier services meant that all of the services and rental movement of equipment has to be manually done, racking up quite a bit of expenses. Also was the training needed for his staff, the need for home and corporate equipment maintenance to be done properly in a niche market.
Part of his day to day duties are to ensure that corporate projects go smoothly, that the operations side are steadily planned, and planning marketing projects for Singapore and Malaysia, where fitness and sports are on the rise in this digital age, and keep quality control on ecommerce sites and daily operations.
Mr Woon takes pride in Homefitness’ service team, which is regarded as one of the more reputable ones in Singapore. Before setting up Homefitness, Mr Woon ensures that his team is well versed with their products as well as equipment maintenance, to provide a good experience to corporates and other individuals who rented their gym equipment for use. Homefitness’ pricing is unique in that they do not scale to competitors, but to a certain amount of profit per equipment. Mr Woon aims to start off with a low price in order to gain reviews and repute, before updating the prices as the product matures over time.
Most of Homefitness’ staff are sports related, or fitness certified in their own right. Bound by a mutual passion for fitness, the staff finds it easy to explain the benefits of their products. Instead of simply selling a treadmill or static exercise station by itself, they understand that Homefitness is selling health and fitness, one enthusiast in such a field to another in the form of a consumer.
Homefitness has branches in Malaysia, as well as projects in Myanmar and Vietnam, where they have a clientele there. Mr Woon also plans to set up a digital marketing team in KL, in order to promote the brand there too. However, Mr Woon dreams of expanding over to the entire AsiaPac region, eventually being a major supplier in the region.
Mr Woon humbly states that there’s nothing notable Homefitness has achieved at the moment, but believes that learning from one’s mistakes and picking one up is key to achieving great things, coupled with confidence in oneself also helps to make important decisions. Mr Woon finds motivations in closing deals, not simply earning money or selling products. What’s important is being recognized, having Homefitness as a top seller and distributor is what really brings pride to him, and having a team which he can lead to success as well!
