Almost six years ago former footballer Mark O’Reilly was putting Paul Marchant, chief executive of Primark, through his fitness paces when talk turned to business. O’Reilly was just 23. He’d played underage soccer for Ireland, and tried to make it in England. He had recently returned from playing soccer semi-professionally in Australia, and gone into the personal training business.

While in Australia, O’Reilly had seen how corporate wellness had become a booming industry. When he came back to Ireland, he started working in a Dublin gym and Marchant was one of his early clients. The two started talking and O’Reilly told him about his plans for Fitvision, a high-end corporate wellness business combining fitness with wellness – both physical and mental. 

“When I presented this proposal to him Paul said ‘Let’s bring this in at a small scale and see its impact on our Dublin office.’” Primark was close to opening its reinvigorated new international headquarters on Parnell Street called Arthur Ryan House. The open-plan office, which combined a listed heritage property and a 2002 office block, was cool and contemporary with a central atrium and a space for fitness and wellness classes. From small beginnings, Fitvision took off with Primark. 

“They have 70,000 employees and they are thinking of ways to roll out wellness across the whole organisation.” 

“I was very lucky that they were our first client,” O’Reilly said. “It opened so many doors for us.”

The fledgling company ended up working with about 1,000 Primark staff in Dublin and another 500 in Reading, England. “They have approached us to look at how to bring wellness to the whole organisation,” O’Reilly said. “They have 70,000 employees and they are thinking of ways to roll out wellness across the whole organisation.” 

Within a couple of years, O’Reilly was employing more than 10 people, and picking up clients like Indeed, Oracle, Irish Life Health and Salesforce. He also kept up his one-to-one executive training business with likes like Alan Foy, the founder of Blueface and Fiona Flannery, chief executive of Depfa bank. 

Everything was going well as Fitvision moved from its original base near the Dylan Hotel in Ballsbridge into a new office on Fitzwilliam Square South. O’Reilly’s plan with the office was for more than just a training space. “As the business evolved we felt our premises had to evolve,” he said. “The new office let us offer more executive leadership and coaching as well as corporate wellness.”

Board and meeting rooms were to combine along with training facilities to allow O’Reilly deliver his vision.

With the arrival of Covid-19, everything has changed for the fitness industry.

Fitness and Covid-19

O’Reilly is talking from his office via Zoom, rather than over coffee as his business is located less than 100 metres from the office of The Currency. 

“We have to move a lot of stuff online quite quickly,” O’Reilly said. Classes and coaching are now taught through corporate websites as well as Fitvision’s app. Every week, he said, his business works with about 10,000 people as corporates strive to bring wellness as well as work to the home. 

“One of the biggest difficulties for organisations is engagement right now,” O’Reilly said. Fitvision, he said, was a way for corporates to stay connected with their staff. “We live stream classes every morning, lunchtime and evening,” O’Reilly said. “We are also now doing more webinars for smaller teams around building a resilient mindset in the current situation.” 

“If you don’t have an online platform you won’t get the corporate tenders.”

“We can see some employees are struggling, and are more stressed and more anxious,” O’Reilly said. “Now more than ever we need stuff to take us away from our devices.” Remote working, he said, could make it hard for people to switch off. “We help people unwind, decreasing anxiety and improving mood and cognitive function,” O’Reilly said. 

“Productivity is going to start to decrease if people are constantly stressed and anxious. Health and wellbeing helps solve productivity problems, he explained. “For a longtime wellbeing was seen as yoga once a week and the odd exercise class.” he said. “Wellbeing means a lot more than that, it is a culture within an organisation.”

O’Reilly predicted that many gyms might not survive Covid-19. “It is very sad but we’re going to see many businesses close,” he said. “Some very successful gyms will have to fight to stay open.” 

“We are not all in a position where we can switch every service online. We were lucky that in our part of the industry having an online solution is expected. If you don’t have an online platform you won’t get the corporate tenders. There are though certainly going to be gym closures by those who find it too hard to switch online.”