It was at FILEX 2015 that I first spoke to
Fitness Network Executive Director, Nigel
Champion, about FILEX.
It was a chilly April morning at the
Melbourne Convention Centre and I had
been in the CEO role at Fitness Australia
for two weeks or so.
Nigel and I were ambling past exercise
professionals (not trainers or instructors
– professionals – this a serious business
we’re in) who were scurrying between
sessions inhaling a chicken wrap as
they laughed and chatted amongst
themselves. It was the April lycra-fest
that is the annual FILEX education
convention.
“So”, I queried to Mr. Champion, fitness
visionary and entrepreneur, “how is it
that Fitness Australia is one of the few
national peak bodies that doesn’t own
its own education convention?”
“Because we own it”.
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What I like about Nigel is his
forthrightness and economy of
language. What I don’t like is his straight
shooting South African honesty.
“Can we buy it off you?”
“Nup.”
“Why not?”
“Don’t want to sell it”.
Not the response I was looking for, but it
was OK because Fitness Australia, a not
for profit by name as well as by nature,
had no money to buy it anyway. But I
thought I’d ask the question.
Fast forward to March 2017 and I’m
sharing a coffee with Ryan Hogan,
the CEO of Network who drops the
throwaway line “oh, if you’re still
interested in acquiring FILEX you’d
better hurry up because now is the time.
Nigel and Greg have an offer on the
table”. Cue theme to Mission Impossible
immediately installing itself in my head,
where it would stay for the next 272 days.
A simple proposition really. Acquire the
biggest fitness education of its kind in the
southern hemisphere with no money, no
assets to borrow against, and no time to
pull it all together.
I was repeatedly reminded by financiers
over the next few days of the traditional
finance protocols that underpin the
modern global economy of having
significant assets and a slab of cash, of
which we had neither, to undertake an
acquisition such as FILEX as I ingratiated
myself pleading for capital. All without
a glimmer of hope. Clearly if we were
going to acquire this puppy we needed
a change of strategy.
So maybe if Fitness Australia can’t afford
all of it, maybe it could afford some of
it. The Board were keen – cautious, but
keen. It was a minefield of potential
conflicts of interest and exposure to
debt. But we had some things on our
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