Exercise Equipment of Nevada founders create Fitness2Go

Not ready to roll into the sunset after their three-store chain was purchased by Busy Body, Exercise Equipment of Nevada co-owners Phil and Arleen Huddleston have created Fitness2Go, a business that will focus on commercial sales, as well as retail and commercial service and delivery.

“We wouldn’t leave the industry 100 percent,” Arleen Huddleston told SNEWS®. “We enjoy what we do, and that’s why we do it.”

The transformation was simple and logical, she said, since Busy Body Home Fitness is only a retail operation. The Huddlestons will also take on delivery and service for Busy Body as a part of their new venture, she said.

The new company’s brands will include many of its former retail ones, with a couple still being negotiated. So far, Fitness2Go will be the dealer commercially in Nevada for Vision, Vectra and Star Trac.

With the ink on the Busy Body deal still fresh and the negotiations for the late-May acquisition having happened quickly, Arleen Hudddleston said she and her husband are still reeling a bit. They only started the retail operation from their garage in 1992. In 12 years it grew to three stories — two in Nevada (Reno and Las Vegas) and one in Fresno, Calif.

“It was the right time at the right place,” she said. “It made sense for us.”

The stores were only closed one day, on May 26, and the employees only found out the night before about the acquisition, she said (See SNEWS story, June 3). Negotiations were happening with Exercise Equipment of Nevada just as Busy Body’s last acquisition (Colorado-based All About Fitness; see SNEWS story, May 3) was being finalized, she said, so that kept the focus off of them.

In addition, she said, all their employees have found a job with Busy Body or with Fitness2Go, which was “important to us to have piece of mind.”

“We’re going to take care of our community too,” she said. “That’s what we’re in business for.”

The Huddlestons can still be reached at 775-826-1331 or info@exercise-equipment.com.

SNEWS® View: It seems Busy Body’s acquisitions are creating new business niches in a way. Former owners of All About Fitness are also going to focus on commercial installations, a part of their previous business that hadn’t even been given the attention they felt it needed. So in neither case are well-known fitness retailers going to take the money and run, so to speak, but rather they are going to expand their reach and stick around a while.