Fitness: Movin' & Shakin' — FHI requests reorganization plan delay, ParaBody brand gone, Hardbody Fitness closes

In a filing with the court overseeing its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization case, Fitness Holdings International, parent of Omni and Busy Body Home Fitness, has requested a postponement of its March 2 deadline to file its final reorganization plan. A court hearing to discuss the plan had been set for March 17 with plan paperwork due two weeks before. Meanwhile, a hearing is set for March 11 on FHI’s latest request for store closings — its fourth. (Click here to read a Feb. 25 SNEWS® story, “FHI to gut business: Omni to close out, Busy Body sliced, what’s next?”) According to the court request to postpone, there are two reasons: A hearing regarding further use of cash collateral is set for March 30, and FHI’s financial advisor Kibel Green, which has been exploring possible sales of stores, has a “potential for such a transaction … of as many as seven stores.” These stores are ones that are included in the latest store closings list. FHI has requested a postponement of about 60 days….

The Parabody brand name as of the first of the year is officially gone from equipment by Life Fitness. A spokesman told SNEWS the company had been slowly transitioning in the last few years to the Life Fitness brand in its consumer strength-training equipment area, with the new G series gyms introduced last year being the final merging of the two brands — i.e. the Life Fitness name with Parabody technology. The brand “Parabody” has now been deleted from “About Life Fitness” verbiage in releases. Life Fitness acquired Parabody in 1998 and still owns the brand and trademark. Brands remaining include Life Fitness and Hammer Strength….

Hardbody Fitness, a one-door retailer in Grand Junction, Colo., will be closing its doors soon, although no date has been set. The store, owned by Brenda and David Hayes, couldn’t recuperate after a 60 percent drop in December sales, they told the local Grand Junction newspaper. “Christmas was so bad, it was like this isn’t going to go away,” Brenda Hayes was quoted in the newspaper. The business has been around for seven years and operates both as specialty fitness retailer Hardbody and sporting goods retailer All Sports Outlet. It is expected to shut down sometime in March.

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