Gulf Bank highlights a new startup journey on its ''Let’s Talk Business'' podcast

 

 

• Bader Albanna is a young Kuwaiti man who left the engineering profession and started working with his Crossfit certification
• Albanna was among three of the founders of Circuit Plus Fitness which was established to encourage people to exercise
• The company started with a capital of KD 21,000 and now has plans to expand in the Gulf region
• The company started with one branch and 4 employees in Shuwaikh to now boasting seven locations and 100+ employees

 

The mark of success often goes beyond one’s chosen path of study; in fact, sometimes following your hobby is what leads to the most success. Bader Albanna, CEO of Circuit Plus Fitness, graduated from the University of Southern California as a civil engineer and ended up pursuing his hobby. By turning CrossFit into his profession, Albanna entered the business world and emerged an entrepreneur.

 

How did Albanna's hobby, which he practiced while studying in the United States, turn into a successful business venture? Why did he quit football and became a CrossFit coach? And how did he convince his family that he wanted to pursue a career in CrossFit, not engineering?

 

To answer these questions and more, and to find out the details, Bader Albanna was a guest on Gulf Bank’s “Let’s Talk Business” podcast. The podcast, hosted by Tareq Al-Saleh, Deputy General Manager of the Economic Research Unit at Gulf Bank, presents entrepreneurial stories within a simplified economic framework, targeting budding entrepreneurs who are considering starting businesses of their own. The Bank’s podcast is part of its overarching strategy of fostering economic and community sustainability in Kuwait, and highlights the little-known origin stories behind some of our favorite local brands.

 

New Sport

 

Albanna, who loved football and played in Al-Arabi Club and the Kuwait national team, began practicing crossfit as an experiment while pursuing his engineering studies in the United States. After practicing the sport for just 5 minutes, he quickly noted how challenging the sport was, and just how driven he was to become better at the sport and rise to the challenge. Soon enough, he got his CrossFit certifications, becoming a coach and eventual owner of a CrossFit company.

 

Albanna says, “I had always considered myself an athlete, yet I fell to the ground within five minutes of my first CrossFit training. I quickly learned that it is a challenging sport, with lots of weights and various training styles. CrossFit does not depend solely on fitness and strength, but on the trainer’s program.”

 

He added, "I had intended to complete my master's degree in the United States, but my partner, Saoud Al Humaidhi, who returned to Kuwait a year before me, convinced me to return, with the aim of bringing CrossFit to Kuwait.” Despite the proliferation of gyms across the country, equipped with swimming pools and a spa, CrossFit gyms seemed like a great opportunity, with most gyms rarely exceeding 400 meters.

 

He continued, "Although the area of the CrossFit gyms is relatively small and rents are low, operational costs are still high due to their need for quality equipment and high-level trainers," noting a similarity to the padel sport in its dependence on community participation, groups and families.

 

He added: "My partner worked on the project for a full year before my return from the United States, and prepared the right setup for us to launch our first branch. We started with a tripartite partnership with a capital of KD 21,000 dinars to establish Circuit Plus Fitness, and given my experience and CrossFit certifications, everything related to the training program was entrusted to me."

 

Club Management

 

He stated that Circuit Plus Fitness is a company that specializes in managing several gyms, having started in 2012 with one branch, and today spans seven branches. Moreover, each branch is different from the next, with each serving a target audience and fitness program, but all coming together under the slogan "Activate your body."

 

Albanna said, "What we were afraid of ended up being the driver behind our success. The strangeness of the sports tools we were using — from twists and ropes and more — drew people's attention. We were getting so many questions, and we decided not to let people join the gym until after they got a chance to experience it for themselves.”

 

He pointed out that the project's marketing was kept in-house, with the main means of communication being social media and Instagram. At the time, social media was becoming increasingly popular; that, coupled with their community’s overwhelmingly positive reaction, contributed to the proliferation of the sport. Albanna also remarked that during the past few years the company did not see the need to increase their capital due to their ability to finance their expansions purely from their revenues.

 

He pointed out that the company currently has a team of more than 100 people, composed of both Kuwaitis and foreigners, and organizes two main events annually. The first major event, the Battle Fitness Festival, takes place on Green Island, and the second, the Kuwait Marathon, on the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway. Moreover, Albanna noted that the recent focus on padel among the fitness community also inadvertently increased turnout at several CrossFit gyms across the country, with more people turning to exercise.

 

As life returns to normal and with the pandemic subsiding, Albanna intends to return to implementing the expansion plans that were halted by the crisis, especially in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. During the pandemic, Albanna pivoted from his expansion plans to focus on renting equipment, even providing subscriptions for those who desired a gym equipment delivery service. All of these efforts and more contributed to alleviating the business pressures brought on by the pandemic.

 

Four Challenges

 

Regarding the difficulties that the business faced at inception, Albanna said: “The first difficult decision was knowing when and where to start. My partner solved this problem before I returned from the United States, and we launched our first branch in the Shuwaikh Industrial area.”

 

He continued, “The second difficulty was how to convince coaches in the United States and Europe to come to Kuwait. Indeed, we started with three foreign coaches, and I became the fourth after I decided to give up my engineering degree and take advantage of the specialized training certificates I had obtained studying CrossFit.”

 

The third difficulty, according to Albanna, came after the business owners decided to open a branch for women. The main challenge in this regard came in recruiting foreign trainers.

 

“As for the biggest difficulty for me, personally?” continued Albanna. “It was how to convince my family, friends and relatives of my decision to give up an engineering degree and devote myself to CrossFit. However, what made it easy was that I returned to Kuwait with a business up and running, and that made it easier for me to dive right into the project and immerse myself in it.”

 

Albanna advised aspiring entrepreneurs to practice the hobbies you love. According to Albanna, it is never a prerequisite to have an integrated business plan from the beginning; however, he also advised young entrepreneurs not to be “stubborn with business.” That is, when you make a mistake, you must admit to the mistake and try to correct it, adding, “We made many mistakes throughout our entrepreneurial journey, but we corrected them and learned from them each time.”