Life Fitness sets up int'l "pre-owned" facility in Hungary

Following in the tracks of the car industry where “certified pre-owned” is better than just plain “used,” Life Fitness will standardize its international Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) program and refurbish commercial cardiovascular equipment bound for various European and Asian countries in a new CPO facility in Hungary.

Formerly, each Life Fitness subsidiary did its own refurbishment and sold the equipment back into its local market or to a third party to sell. Now, with standardized procedures and with the new 20,000-square-foot central facility in Szekesfehervar, Hungary — the company’s second facility in that country — Life Fitness said it will be able to sell refurbished equipment at significantly lower prices to more markets — not just the market the equipment came from. Those include Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Russia. The Hungary factory allows the company to ship to these countries more economically and sell to budget-conscious clubs and vertical market facilities in Europe, the company told SNEWS®.

“By standardizing our CPO procedures worldwide and opening the Hungary CPO facility, we have established a complete system designed to meet the needs of all our international CPO customers,” Jay Megna, executive vice president, global sales, service and marketing, said in a statement. “Now when our customers, no matter where they are in the world, buy CPO products, they’ll know they’re getting equipment that has gone through the same meticulous procedures, right down to the factory-grade shipping cartons.”

Life Fitness’ CPO program follows established certification standards for its commercial cardiovascular equipment, including treadmills, Lifecycle exercise bikes, elliptical cross-trainers and steppers. Each piece is disassembled and diagnosed, tested based on a checklist, and fit with new Life Fitness components. Then, the products are rebuilt to original specs, repainted and assembled, and shipped in factory-grade cartons.

Life Fitness teamed with its parent company Brunswick Corp. to establish the new CPO factory, which is adjacent to the Brunswick Bowling factory near Budapest. Life Fitness manages the CPO factory and Brunswick employees conduct the work. The company’s first Hungarian facility, in Kiskoros, manufactures the company’s selectorized strength-training Signature Series line for international markets.

A company spokesperson said the CPO Program will not affect the company’s U.S. market. She added that U.S. products are refurbished domestically, while the products sent to the Hungary facility will come only from the European markets.

Life Fitness is putting the same stamp of approval on its pre-owned products that it does on its new products by offering the same warranties on the CPO equipment.