Fitness: Did You Hear?…

>> Frank Reckwald is the new sales and marketing manager for the Nautilus Group in Germany. He comes from Reebok and replaces Harry Mutschler, who left the company at the end of October to do some private consulting.

>> As a part of the winter ispo trade show programming at the February show in Germany, two new seminars will be presented: “Feng Shui in your store and how it affects your customer responses” and “Fitness, Sport and Nutrition — How nutritional events can help attract customers.”

>> American Media’s $350 million acquisition of family-owned Weider Publications means the company will expand the Weider health and fitness pubs aggressively into Latino markets and begin publishing them in Spanish. The company, which owns The National Enquirer, already has 43 Latino markets targeted. The Weider purchase deal is expected to be final in January.

>> GoodLife Clubs of Ontario, Canada, will expand into French Canada with a new name, new logo and new signage to address that market’s needs and preferences. GoodLife clubs in the province of Quebec will be named VitaVie, Centres de Mise en Forme (Centers for Getting in Shape). The chain’s stated goal is to expand its 70 clubs to 100 by the end of 2004.

>> True Fitness is making a lot of personnel changes lately. In October, Todd Nickodym came aboard as director of marketing. Nickodym comes from a consumer marketing director post at Life Fitness. This week, the St. Louis, Mo.-based, company announced three other appointments: Mike McNeese, national accounts manager who has been a general manager of the Sporting Club at Lakeshore Towers and will oversee the development of national accounts in the health club segment and government sector; John Conti, national retail sales manager, who will serve as a liaison between the company and its product dealers while leading retail sales efforts in four territories throughout the United States and Canada; and Arlene Maminta, who as a partner in the ORCA Partnership will be the PR and media contact for True.

>> Who would have ever thunk that “enhanced water” would account for many millions of dollars in sales? That’s the clear stuff that has a smidgen of flavor and sweetener and usually some sort of vitamin or mineral enhancement, hence the name. Indeed, beverage industry watchers say enhanced water is the fastest-growing segment of the category, and Propel Fitness Water by The Gatorade Co. last week became the first enhanced water to surpass $100 million in annual sales. Enhanced water sales are up on average 124 percent year-to-date. Drink up!

>> Brunswick Corporation (NYSE: BC) has announced Dale Tompkins, 40, has been named vice president for strategy and corporate development, effective Jan. 1, 2003. Tompkins assumes these responsibilities from T.J. Chung, who will concentrate on his responsibilities as president of Brunswick New Technologies (BNT). Tompkins will oversee strategic planning as well as mergers and acquisitions for Brunswick, reporting to George W. Buckley, Brunswick’s chairman and chief executive officer.

>> Yakkity-yak — According to a recent survey, workers usually don’t spend more than one to 10 minutes a day on personal phone calls during the workday (76.9 percent). Only a tiny percentage (a meager 1 percent) spend 31 to 60 minutes, but more than one in six (17.3 percent) spend 11 to 30 minutes a day yakking it up about life and times not related to work. Let’s do the math: That’s 55 to 150 minutes a week — or 48 hours to a whopping 130 hours a year doing personal chat time on their employer’s nickel.