Best Fitness and Social Club in Kuwait: C Club

Interview with Abdullah Al Askari, Managing Director of C Club

Let’s start with your personal background. You mentioned that you were the first to establish a personalized fitness centre in Kuwait.

We first thought of launching a personal training centre after seeing that clients of local gyms did not receive the care needed to achieve their health and fitness goals. The market was filled with fitness misconceptions and we needed to attend to them. We then inaugurated a private and personalized, personal training studio that would assist clients in reaching their goals with minimal mistakes. Clients do not guess what they need to do, we are here to guide them. Our long-term goal, however, is to ensure clients are well aware of what is right and what is not, what they need and what they don’t, to maintain their goals. We want to empower our clients with what they have learnt. At the end of the day, we know that our trainers will not be following them forever. Today, we see success when our clients leave our facility and continue working out on a daily basis as part of their daily routine.

You have been in the industry for a while, so how would you define the health and fitness culture in Kuwait?

The industry has been booming over the past five to eight years. It has immensely expanded through pop-up gyms, and a wide variety of facilities offering specialized fitness programs from yoga, to personal training and crossfit. In comparison, the gym concept in the past referred to one major mass facility. The transition is definitely a good sign. Kuwait is rated second in the world for obesity and diabetes so I believe the country entails the need for awareness. Kuwait’s lifestyle tends to be lazier and dependent on services. We have therefore reached a dangerous level of obesity and diabetes amongst our small population. Our children are without-a-doubt the first victims of this lazy lifestyle. Obesity and diabetes amongst children in Kuwait are rated at the top of global charts. That is concerning for the upcoming generation.

I am a big believer that everything begins with education in schools, but primarily in the home.

It also has to do with education.

I am a big believer that everything begins with education in schools, but primarily in the home. Children imitate their parents, what they do and how they act, basically imitating their habits. The home needs to implement healthy eating habits and extracurricular activities participation must be part of a child’s daily regimen or schedule. Then comes the schools and their responsibility; we initiated with the Ministry of Health a program to eliminate junk food in school meals and employ specialized food companies that can provide healthy meals for children. Sports are definitely just as important. As a country we have reached the lowest rankings in sports worldwide. We are banned from the Olympics and from FIFA. It can’t get any worse. So when kids see that their soccer heroes or their Olympian heroes cannot participate in competition, how would they look at sports? We are facing many challenges on that front.

Definitely.

We always say that if a country and its culture lose sports, music, arts, etc., it loses its identity.

That is true. How did you get together with ALARGAN?

The chairman of ALARGAN, Mr. Khaled Al-Mashaan, is a visionary. If you take a look at past, current and future projects, we believe ALARGAN is always ahead of its time. When you look at the C Club for example, you wouldn’t imagine it being built eleven years ago with the current capabilities to create something with a similar ambience. This is just a small example. With ALARGAN expanding in real estate development over the past few years, they have shown great interest in commercial, tourism and now health and fitness facilities to add to their business portfolio. The fitness industry as we have mentioned is booming and expanding, and ALARGAN wants to be a part of that. I joined forces with ALARGAN to create a company under the umbrella of ALARGAN International, which is called Life Beam. It specialises in gym management, establishment and consultation. We are responsible for building future fitness, health and medical facilities for ALARGAN and managing existing ones.

Could you tell us more about the C Club, i.e. the different facilities and services you provide?

C Club was established in 2005 and the concept behind it was to have not only a fitness facility but as well a social club where people can interact, meet, do business and so on. There is the fitness side and the social side. It is rare to find a club in Kuwait that provides both. When we established Life Beam, we worked on enhancing services. We hired a group of instructors and trainers qualified and certified to assist clients and to help them achieve their goals. We have seen that our members do really appreciate that side of the service. They used to spend two hours socialising and just half an hour in the gym on the top floor. Now the culture is changing. Clients are more aware of the fact that they have to take care of themselves and lead healthier lifestyles. Hitting the gym is becoming essential in their busy schedules and workload. In addition to the health and fitness culture we’re creating, we are very selective as well of our members, ensuring that we don’t lose that social environment at the Club, where everyone can connect on some level.

How do you reach out to these guests?

Our niche target requires us to go directly on a more personal level. C Club has never advertised in the past ten years. We have just, 2 years ago, started a social media account, but our advertising is always on a personal scale; either it is focused on word of mouth or direct visits to our clients in their offices or homes to present the club and its facilities. We then invite them for a coffee visit to experience the club and hopefully join it.

Will you be holding any events or starting any new classes in 2017 here?

We do have a wide range of trainers that are very versatile in their knowledge and their training techniques. Our nine trainers offer different types of classes, whether yoga, Pilates, cycling, kickboxing, HIT and more. Our weekly schedule is filled with group classes. We also do host events for premium brands in our premises throughout the year. Last year, we hosted the launch of the Rolls Royce Dawn. This year we will host the 60th anniversary of Porsche, a large party of car owners and members to be held in March of the year hopefully.

What kind of facilities do you have here?

We are considered to be a luxury beach club. That is how we define ourselves. Our gym area is substantially large, and fully equipped. We have indoor and outdoor pools. Our spa offers 25 different treatments for members and non-members. We also have a Jacuzzi, saunas, and steam rooms. Three squash courts are also available, staffed by trained professional coaches, two of which are previous world champions. We have two swimming coaches who were as well part of their national teams. As you can see, we invest in qualified staff to provide high standards of services to our members

Let’s talk about the projects of Life Beam.

Life Beam was recently established, just in 2015. As I said, there are some existing facilities that are already under management of Life Beam, and C Club is one of them. The ALARGAN Business Park’s Fitness Centre is another, as well as Club Fit. Our upcoming projects will comprise a physiotherapy and rehabilitation centre, expected to open early 2018. There are two mega projects in the pipeline for 2019 and 2020. These are the projects that we are working on so far under Life Beam.

These other future projects are in child education?

They will be accumulative of a sports fitness centre and child education as well.

What characterizes Life Beam projects? How do you differentiate yourself from other companies in your sector?

Life Beam today is a one-of-a-kind service provider; we want to establish new concepts within the industry. We don’t want to imitate projects. People that have done that in Kuwait have set themselves up for failure. We are a small country and there are only so many same concept gyms that can exist. However, through Life Beam, we will provide new types of services within the fitness and health industry. One client can use services in both types of facilities. Our ultimate strategy is to create more unique facilities, away from duplications.

Can you tell us more about the physiotherapy and rehabilitation centre?

We have done our research and we have seen a lack in the country, either the facilities are back dated or the technology and treatment is not up to date. We lack the fully-fledged physiotherapy centre that can provide all of the services that you need. We also have high demand for physiotherapy and rehabilitation services in Kuwait. Going back to our tradition and culture, our “lazy” lifestyle involving sitting and eating increases body pains, aches, back and neck problems, among other physical issues. On the other hand, healthy and active individuals also suffer from injuries from sports. The demand is on all segments. The government has also started promoting medical tourism, so we will want to be prepared to attract demand from abroad to provide therapy in Kuwait at the same standards found in France, UK, and Germany. This is our plan for the centre.

Do you have a final message?

Our message as part of the private sector is that we believe there has to be a time when we work together with the government sector to provide permanent solutions for obesity and diabetes problems, especially amongst children. We need to address this urgently, and myself and our group of companies are ready to join hands with the government. We can provide solutions, studies, processes and systems to be implemented in schools and educational facilities. I hope one day this will happen.

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