Tim Hogins’ concept of the outdoor gym is to make health and wellness accessible to all.

Tim Hogins was 11 and selling sweets on the streets when he would look longingly at the queues of people waiting to board the bus to the plush Sun City resort in South Africa.
It was a forbidden world of play and luxury and he was quietly determined to one day build one of his own everyone could access.
The former delivery boy and security guard who grew up in dusty Randfontein in South Africa is today the CEO of Green Outdoor Gyms (GOG), an outdoor health, wellness and lifestyle company growing in size.
<div id="attachment_37215" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37215" class="size-medium wp-image-37215" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />A GOG lifestyle park in Lanseria, Johannesburg</div>
When we meet him, the 39-year-old entrepreneur, who once sold koeksisters (sticky spicy treats), offers a table laden with sweets, savouries and fruit. Hogins helps himself to a slice of banana bread as he begins to tell his story. 
“Growing up poor is actually a good thing. It gave birth to ambition, it gave birth to my desire to be successful,” he says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2018/04/09/painting-houses-building-1-95-billion-development/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: From Painting Houses To Building A $1.95-Billion Development</a>
“The outdoor gym concept was born because I saw kids doing push-ups and pull-ups in the park.” 
Hogins’ parents died when he was in his 20s. “That is where the Tim Hogins story started,” he says. 
He invested capital with a friend to launch his pet outdoor gym project. GOG’s first park was in the township of Soweto.
“GOG is for the everyday person who cannot afford commercial and expensive gyms. It also doesn’t hinder the high-earning people from using it. South Africa is a family-oriented country, and soon we will have people at the gyms from all walks of life,” he says.
To date, GOG has installed 388 outdoor gyms in South Africa. The company has built two lifestyle parks in Gauteng with a third to follow at the end of the year.
“The health and fitness industry is the largest in the world and it grows year-on-year. I saw an opportunity from a health and fitness perspective. People want to live longer, they want to live healthier so they spend money on health and fitness,” says Hogins.
Growing up, he was no stranger to entrepreneurship.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-37214 alignright" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-300x194.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="194" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-300x194.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-600x389.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-768x498.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-1024x664.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
“My dad was trying to survive. We had a café. But as you know a café does not make much money. On the side, he tried to do some construction, and my mom, because of the circumstances, decided to sell too. All my life my parents were selling something. My mom sold koeksisters and cakes; she became a caterer. There were always people at my house buying something, be it sweets, be it toffee apples…We sold whatever,” he recollects.
In his quest to build outdoor wellness areas, many a time it meant turning dusty pieces of land into landscaped spaces.
<blockquote>“In many instances, we literally transformed a dumping site into an outdoor gym. One instance you see a dumping site and the next you see kids on swings and gym equipment all around,” he says.</blockquote>
Engaging the community, GOG also uplifts the areas it operates in.
With hopes to list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange next year, Hogins will give his staff an opportunity to invest in his vision.

09.05.2018-65

Turning Dusty Spaces Into Green Gyms

Cape Town-born Hilda Lunderstedt is a  shrewd businesswoman and considered a pioneer in the pharmaceutical industry for bringing the nutrients and vitamins trend to South Africa.
Two years shy of 50, Lunderstedt has been in pharmaceuticals for almost 30 years now. She founded NutriLida, a vitamin, mineral and supplements business, in 2001 with a meager pension payout. Eager to build a client base, she sold her first batch of products at a 50% discount. Nine years later, NutriLida was sitting at a staggering nine-figure value. Lunderstedt cashed in, selling the business to South Africa’s second biggest pharmaceutical player, Adcock Ingram.
Today, she spends her time looking for investment opportunities in the international health, wellness and beauty industry. But her starting point is a far cry from the opulence she enjoys today.
She studied pharmacy at Stellenbosch University, graduating in 1987. Her father decided to enroll himself for medical school at the age of 35 in pursuit of his dream of becoming a doctor. Her choice of studying Pharmacy was an extension of her father’s dream for her.
“I honestly didn’t want to be a pharmacist. I just didn’t see it as part of my dream. I just knew that I wanted to do something related to beauty,” she says. Her father’s dream for her proved to be stronger than her affinity for the beauty industry at the time.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29469 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Hilda-Lunderstedt_6299-300x217.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="217" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hilda-Lunderstedt_6299-300x217.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hilda-Lunderstedt_6299-600x435.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hilda-Lunderstedt_6299-768x557.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hilda-Lunderstedt_6299-1024x742.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hilda-Lunderstedt_6299.jpg 1023w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Armed with a BSc degree in Pharmacy, she succumbed to the lure of Johannesburg. With her bus ticket in hand and the promise of a job in a start-up pharmaceutical company described “ripe for growth and ready for takeoff”, Lunderstedt made the move to the City of Gold. In six weeks, the company had closed shop and the promise of success in Johannesburg had more than lost its luster.
“Everybody said don’t go to Johannesburg. That place will chew and spit you out. It did. My pride took a beating but more importantly, I simply didn’t have the money to go back to Cape Town.”
With empty pockets and her degree in hand, Lunderstedt maneuvered herself into a local hospital’s pharmacy division. Tasked with the procurement function, she discovered her exceptional ability to sell products and steadily began to grow and cultivate a global network, a network that would prove to be the key to unlocking her future success.
In the early 2000s, the pharmaceutical industry in South Africa was booming, with new pharmacies and products mushrooming in every major city.
“Back then, nobody knew anything about this untapped world of natural food supplements and vitamins. I knew I was on to something.” Lunderstedt was finally able to converge her love for health and beauty with her training in pharmacy.
Before long, she had latched onto a breakthrough – grape seed extract – that would change pharmacy as it was known in South Africa. She cracked the formulae that would unleash the therapeutic benefits of the extract, from healing wounds, treating high cholesterol, repairing nerve damage, and even preventing cancer. Convinced by her findings she quit her job to solely focus on bringing grape seed extract in product form to South African shelves.
Her laughter bubbles over as she recounts how once she had the formulae she reached out to partners in China for production.
“People said you can’t just transfer money to China so I arranged to fly and go meet the production team on the factory floor. I sat wide awake on the 15-hour flight keeping a sharp eye on my small bag of dollars!” A flight and a wad of money later, her product was shipped to South Africa ready to hit the shelves.
“In my first year of business, I got over every fear that I had ever had, professional and personal.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29471 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Hilda-Lunderstedt_7882-217x300.jpg" alt="" width="217" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hilda-Lunderstedt_7882-217x300.jpg 217w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hilda-Lunderstedt_7882-300x415.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hilda-Lunderstedt_7882-600x829.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hilda-Lunderstedt_7882-768x1061.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hilda-Lunderstedt_7882-741x1024.jpg 741w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hilda-Lunderstedt_7882.jpg 740w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 217px) 100vw, 217px" />
Lunderstedt never looked back, moving from grape seed extract to other nutricare products. Finally her biggest breakthrough came with bringing probiotics to South Africa, catapulting NutriLida into the big league. She sold the company to Adcock Ingram in 2010 for “hundreds of millions of rands”, making her one of the country’s richest women today.

Hilda-Lunderstedt_6290

The Reluctant Pharmacist

Adrian Gore, South Africa’s undisputed king of health insurance, has done pioneering stuff before—as a matter of fact that’s all he has done since the day he founded Discovery 20 years ago—but none as daring as his latest venture.
In a world where Africa has become China’s happy hunting ground, Gore is hunting in the opposite direction.
Discovery recently bought 20% of Ping An Health Insurance, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China’s biggest, and the world’s second largest, insurance company.
“It could have been a much bigger stake, were it not for the strict Chinese foreign ownership rules that prescribe that outsiders can own a maximum of 20%,” says Gore.
Discovery is hungry for global expansion. It surpassed expectation in their forays into the United States of America and Britain, buying up Destiny Health in the US and 50% of Prudential Health in London.
China offers a compelling opportunity and a vast number of customers. China has more than 1.3 billion people, compared to the 50 million in Discovery’s home territory of South Africa. China spends R2 trillion ($237.6 billion) a year on health, South Africa’s R250 billion ($29.7 billion) pales by comparison.
Gore is the first to admit, though, that medical insurance is not something the Chinese do, or know, but all this is about to change.
“The health market in China is going to be huge, one gets a sense that if you get in early you can help shape the system,” says Gore.
His confidence stems from the Chinese government’s plan to introduce major health reforms, including health insurance.
“Chinese private companies are already buying health insurance in huge quantities, while individuals are already starting to buy what they call social health insurance. There are many Asians that understand this stuff. It’s more effervescent.” And sure to help the situation is the strong culture of self-medication and check-ups among the Chinese, what Gore says is an established “prevention mindset”.
Discovery’s entry into China is through its flagship Vitality product, which according to Gore, is the world’s largest incentive-based wellness program.
Vitality encourages healthy behavior that reduces long-term healthcare costs by rewarding members who do things that improve their health by going to the gym, eating healthier and getting regular health assessments. Gore believes Vitality helps to reduce both the occurrence and severity of diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
“I feel very strongly that business must have a social purpose. I don’t mean that in a soft, CSI [corporate social investment] way. Business is about progress. We try to create progress for society. A business must straddle innovation and prudence at the same time.”
“I actually think—and I’m not drawing parallels—the Apple obsession with products, is similar to ours. When we started out, our competitors in the medical aid space used to go to boardrooms. We sold our products on the road. I’m a product junkie. I find that inspiring. I’m an actuary by training, but I’m not inspired by money, but by progress.”
Also, he says, gone are the days where people put money in, and never got something out. In China, Discovery and Ping An have already struck deals with China Airlines and fuel retailers for discounts.
“Health and life insurance are typically grudge purchases. Our fundamental success in this market has been making health insurance sexy, cool, accessible and different,” says Gore.
To mark their entry into the market, Discovery and its partners are targeting in excess of 100 million Chinese who are in the middle to affluent bracket; 80% of whom pay for healthcare out of their own pocket. The good news is that Discovery is not going to do the on-the-ground slogging; the potential risk may come with vast cultural differences.
Ping An—which has 70 million customers and is serviced by close to half a million brokers—will do all the selling. Discovery will focus on building the underlying insurance company.
Gore maintains there’s no pressure to make this venture immediately profitable.
“Our approach, generally, is that you don’t bet family jewels in any one transaction. So, at end of the day, if something goes wrong, it doesn’t dramatically affect us. We haven’t committed huge amounts of capital. It’s as aggressive as we can go, but on the other hand, if it’s a complete and total failure, it doesn’t dramatically affect us.”
“If you’re building the underlying insurance company, that takes time. We’ve grown our earnings per share at 25% a year for 20 years. If China takes time, I won’t be concerned.”
Put to him, that his shareholders may have gotten used to quick gains and may no longer be the patient bunch they once were, when they started, Gore maintains: “Our shareholders—and I’m one of them—are long-term focused.”
One of few African successes in China has been Tencent, an internet business owned by South African multinational Naspers. Last year, China alone contributed R2.1 billion ($251 million) to Naspers’ core headline earnings of R5.3 billion($634 million). Interestingly though, Naspers CEO Koos Bekker could only attribute his company’s success to “simply, bloody luck.”
Gore says his industry “is slightly different. You’ve got to do the basics well, build quality relationships with your partners, regulators, and so on. It’s a tough market, and you’ve got to be brilliant”.
“We’ve spoken to a lot of people. We’ve done a lot of work. We’ve got a good feel for all the issues. In China, the relationships and trust are very important. The advantage of being an African company is that you do those things anyway.”

Tag: Wellness

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Turning Dusty Spaces Into Green Gyms

The Reluctant Pharmacist

Gore The Mandarin