Hong Kong beauty group announces plan to ‘take over’ parts of shuttered gym chain Physical Fitness
Hong Kong Free Press
A Hong Kong beauty group has announced its plans to “take over” parts of shuttered gym chain Physical Fitness, which abruptly closed 23 fitness and health centres in early September leading to thousands of consumer complaints.
PerFace, a medical and beauty company, said in a statement on Friday that it would “take over” certain fitness and beauty slimming businesses from Physical and provide services for any consumers that had purchased gym memberships, personal training sessions, and beauty treatment services from the shuttered chain.
Physical Fitness consumers can enjoy services according to their contracts with Physical Fitness at 11 beauty centres run by PerFace, the company said.
It added that a new company titled Per Fit Limited had been established to take over the Physical Fitness gyms, adding that Per Fir was currently interviewing 700 staff from Physical Fitness and had employed 200 of them.
Physical Fitness gym centres in Wan Chai and Mong Kok had reopened with the new brand Per Fit, according to the statement. PerFace added that the new operator would continue to communicate with landlords of other centres to try and stay in their original sites.
The mother company of PerFace is Fameglow Holding Limited, which was founded in 2008 by the couple Danny Yip and Fu Chi Ching and is listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
According to company registry, the couple founded a new company Per Fit Limited on Thursday.
PerFace said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Luk Ngai-keung, the founder and director of Physical Fitness on Thursday.
Luk and Ho Yuk-wah, another director of Physical Fitness, were arrested in mid-September by Hong Kong customs officers as the government set up an inter-departmental investigation team to handle the fallout from Physical’s closure.
Customs and police investigate unfair trade practices and potential criminal offences, with those found to be in violation of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance facing a maximum penalty of a HK$500,000 fine and five years in prison.
As of October 3, the consumer council said it had received 5,303 complaints against Physical Fitness, involving a total of over HK$189 million. The highest transaction amount involved is around HK$2 million and the lowest transaction amount is HK$99.
Refund channel unclear
Gilly Wong, chief executive of the Consumer Council, said in an online press conference on Friday afternoon that it was still unclear whether Physical Fitness consumers would be eligible for refunds at PerFace or Per Fit centres if they decided not to accept their services.
“According to the the Transfer of Businesses (Protection of Creditors) Ordinance, consumers can be refunded from the old or new business operator. However, we can only answer this question after we confirm whether the current move constitutes a ‘transfer of business’,” Wong said in Cantonese.
Wong suggested that consumers of Physical Fitness review their previous contracts or purchase receipts and check out the services of PerFace or Per Fit before they made any further decisions.
Earlier in September, a banner for wellness brand Healthy was erected outside what had been the Wan Chai branch of gym chain Physical Fitness. Local media outlets reported on Friday that the branch had rebranded as Per Fit on Friday.
Wong said the Consumer Council had not been in touch with Healthy and therefore had not been informed it had been changed to Per Fit.
“It is not ideal from a consumer’s perspective, but it does happen in the business sector, ” Wong said of the situation.
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