|
 Nerio Alessandri, who started off the high-end gym equipment company
in the northern Italian town of Cesena at the beginning of the
1980s, said Technogym would continue to invest to offer more
training programs, including sport-specific ones, as well as live
and on-demand services.
"We are working on our digital platform and intelligent displays,
filling them with new content," Alessandri told Reuters, without
detailing any collaborations or partnership.
Technogym supplies individuals, firms like Ferrari and Facebook,
some 80,000 sports centers worldwide including popular Virgin Active
clubs and the gyms of high-end hotels such as Hyatt and Marriott as
well as banks including JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.
Its state-of the art equipment is also found in the houses of
celebrities, with a personalized, designer, polished aluminum
treadmill costing almost $15,000.
LUXURY WELL-BEING
Alessandri, who says he was first to introduce the concept of
"wellness" some 25 years ago, now sees well-being as a true luxury
for the people in the future as obesity, diabetes and diet-related
problems grow worldwide.
Technogym's full-year results would be in line with its plans for
sustainable and profitable growth and its focus will remain on
organic growth rather than acquisitions, he said.
[to top of second column] |
"Today we cannot give certain forecasts, we don't like making
promises, but sales and profit growth this year will be in line with
plans," Nerio Alessandri told Reuters, adding that Technogym's
growth in the last 30 years had been "constant".
In the last two years, Technogym sales have grown annually in the
high single-digit range, outperforming analysts' expectations of
lower revenue growth. The price of its Milan-listed shares has
almost tripled since its IPO in 2016.
"We cannot think in the short term as the technology we develop for
our products needs time," Alessandri said, adding he preferred
higher margins to larger sales figures.
The company earlier posted a 4.7 percent rise in first-half earnings
before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to 44.9
million euros, while revenue grew 3.6 percent at current exchange
rates to 272.9 million euros.
Technogym shares were down 1.4 percent at 1233 GMT, underperforming
Milan's all-share index.
(Reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Alexander Smith)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
