SINGAPORE has long been exporting food concepts to the region, but one home- grown fitness group is balancing the scales somewhat by expanding its fitness brand overseas.

The True Group, which has built up a wellness empire with its yoga, fitness, spa and aesthetic businesses in just three years, has major plans to expand into the region, and go for public listing in the next three to four years.

It opens its first centre in Mumbai, India, in early November - a 60,000 square foot upscale club at Crystal Point Shopping Mall in Andheri West.

'It'll be the first of its kind of that scale,' says Patrick Wee, founder and group CEO. The fitness centre, to encompass fitness, yoga and spa services, and also a Bikram Hot Yoga studio, is targeted at the upmarket crowd, and membership is expected to be around only 3,000 at US$2,500 a year.

The plan is to open three more clubs in three different cities in India within a year.

'It's in line with our philosophy of opening a cluster of clubs in the countries we go to, as it creates brand awareness,' says Mr Wee.

In Thailand, the group is also planning to open three more centres to add to its two in Bangkok within the next 12 months.

Since Mr Wee started True Yoga here in 2004, the group now has 27 centres and 100,000 members in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan. It hopes to grow to 100 centres in the next five years to become a global wellness brand - a feat possible because sovereign wealth fund Dubai International Capital (DIC) has invested $100 million in the company, and taken a significant minority stake in the True Group.

DIC executive chairman and chief executive Sameer Al Ansari said in a recent statement that the investment was part of DIC's strategy of selecting market leaders in a diverse range of sectors and increasing its focus on Asia as a key driver of growth for this year and beyond.

The True group is now actively finalising locations in the Middle East where it plans to open a few centres next year. Mr Wee says that the group's strategy is also to expand with wholly owned centres, instead of looking for local joint venture partners.

'First, it's difficult to find partners with experience in the fitness industry which makes them only financial partners. And it's always challenging to try to develop a global business when you have piecemeal partnerships in different countries, especially when we decide to take the company public,' says Mr Wee.

Having a strategic partner come in at a holding company level was 'perfect' for the group, he says, 'Because they come in not only as a financial partner, but with strategic relationships in their investment portfolio.'

DIC invested in the True Group in April this year. It also has stakes in the ICICI Bank in India, one of the largest banks, and in DLF real estate group, one of the largest listed companies in India.

The True Group expects revenue of US$100 million this year, an almost 80 per cent increase over last year's revenue. 'We have a strong cashflow which has helped us expand the brand with just internal funds. And we also opened a lot of clubs last year,' says Mr Wee.

This article was first published in The Business Times on September 9, 2008.