INTERVIEW
Barry’s Bootcamp expansion, the Curves success story in Asia, and an at-home fitness market set to boom in the wake of Peloton’s success. The fitness lead at private equity firm North Castle Partners speaks to Kate Cracknell Tell us about North Castle Partners North Castle Partners is a lower- to middle-market private equity firm that’s focused on consumer brands, and within that, uniquely focused on health and wellness. Back in 2001, we called it Healthy Living and Ageing. Today we call it Healthy, Active and Sustainable Living. But effectively we’ve been investing in the wellness movement for over 20 years. We’re raising our seventh fund now – a US$400m fund – and in a few years’ time should have close to US$1bn invested across the sector. We have three areas of focus. The first is beauty and personal care. Second is nutrition, which we define as weight management, healthy foods, supplements and so on – we own the diet centre business Jenny Craig, for example. And finally, there’s fitness and active lifestyle, which along with nutrition has been our most active sector over the years since investing in Equinox in 2001. I became involved in the fitness division in 2007, after North Castle had sold Equinox, and ultimately took on a leadership role in our fitness club efforts in particular.
WE’RE RAISING OUR SEVENTH FUND NOW
WHICH WILL BE A US$400M FUND AND IN A FEW YEARS’ TIME SHOULD HAVE CLOSE
TO US$1BN INVESTED IN OUR ACTIVE FUNDS ACROSS THE SECTOR
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