Company history:
LOWER PROVIDENCE - Vicki Kneeland scooped up the ashes of two diverse businesses and combined them into one synergistic venture. True to her instincts, she soon discovered that fitness and tanning can go together like pizza and pepperoni. "They do kind of feed off of each other," said the owner of the Gym & Tan Line Studio in Trooper. "It's almost like two separate businesses in the same building in a sense. You have women coming in getting ready for proms and weddings, and you have this fitness facility. Sometimes the tanning members end up buying gym memberships. And the gym members want to use the tanning beds, so they buy a tanning package."
Working as a trainer at the now defunct Elite Fitness in Jeffersonville, Kneeland noticed that members continued to patronize the gym despite a myriad of problems.
"The roof was leaking and there were other things wrong, yet people were still flocking there because their little group of friends was still there," she recalled.
"So I approached the owner and asked if they were interested in selling. What I ended up taking were the remaining memberships and some of the equipment." And seven of the 10 employees, she added. The landlord made it clear he no longer wanted to rent to a gym, so Kneeland had to find a place for all those treadmills fast, she said. Meanwhile, nearby Tan Line Studios was closing up after 16 years in the business. "The owner had heard I was buying Elite and asked if I was interested in her business. I thought, 'I'm not ready to get into the tanning business,' but I decided to buy six of her tanning beds and her entire computer system and customer base," Kneeland said. "The wheels were spinning and I was a little overwhelmed."
She'd found a great spot for her new gym, in the old Mario's Pharmacy in the Park Ridge Shopping Center. But it wasn't quite ready to be rented in time. "So I had tanning beds stored everywhere," Kneeland said, laughing.
Once the tanning and the fitness equipment were finally in place under the same roof, Kneeland's next battle was with the phone company. With its built-in customer response, she wanted to keep the old Tan Line phone number. "They finally gave it to me. So when the phone started ringing at the new place, people were calling to schedule tanning appointments. We said, 'We're not that salon, we're another salon, but if you'd like to come in I think you'll like it. And they all did. So it was really amazing how all this happened by keeping that phone number."
Kneeland likes to think of The Gym & Tan Line Studio as a "hometown gym."
"Not everybody wants to go to a huge place with all these amenities like swimming pools and tennis courts," she said. "They really just want to go in, get a workout, talk to a friend and leave."
Recently featured in Club Business Entrepreneur magazine, The Gym offers free sessions with a personal trainer throughout the year to those who sign up for a year's membership.
"That's our way of keeping people motivated," Kneeland explained. "The newness of going to a gym wears off after a little while. And we can offer a few sessions free because we're pretty small ... although we do have over 100 pieces of equipment in here."
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