Heartline Fitness Systems named to Inc. Magazine's list of 5000 fastest growing private companies

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Sept. 5 — Heartline Fitness Systems based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, has been named one of America’s entrepreneurial growth leaders by Inc. magazine, which just released its 2007 Inc. 5000 ranking of the nation’s fastest growing private companies. The rankings can be found on Inc. magazine’s website at http://www.inc.com.

Heartline achieved a 65.6% growth rate in the past three years from 2003 to 2006, and ranked 3,913 among this year’s fastest growing companies. “We are excited to be recognized by Inc. for our rapid growth over the past three years, said Robert F. Burgess, Jr., President & CEO of Heartline. “It is a testament to our employee’s dedication to sweating the details for our customers, our dealers, and our vendor alliance partners.”
“It’s been an uphill battle since 1995,” says Mr. Burgess. “We purchased Heartline in 1995, and spent the better part of three years trying to figure out what we had just purchased.” Heartline re-directed resources across the board from forging new vendor partnerships (Star Trac Fitness), outsourcing its manufacturing, to an overall change in strategic and market focus. “However, despite our focused efforts and hard work, a great deal of our success can be attributed to the growth of Heartline’s two core market segments-middle and high school fitness and training centers, and high-rise residential and office building health clubs,” according to Jason Malecki, Vice President, Commercial Sales.
According to The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, here are the facts driving the fitness industry’s growth: 1) 10% of children ages 2-5 are overweight, compared to 5% in 1980, 2) 16% of children and teens ages 6-19 are overweight, versus only 6% in 1980, or triple, 3) more than 108 million adults are either obese or overweight, and 4) Only 28% of students grades 9 through 12 participated in daily school physical education in 2006, down from 42% in 1991. “Unfortunately, the list goes on and on,” says Mr. Burgess. “Heartline is determined to make a difference in the future health and well being of our society.”

Since 1995, Heartline’s promise has been to design, distribute and service the highest quality strength training and cardiovascular systems available. Through Heartline’s dealer and direct sales network, our products are sold internationally in Europe, South America, the United States and Canada. Our clients include such high profile organizations as: Marriott Hotels, Archstone-Smith Residential, Beazer Homes, Fairfax County Public School System, and The United States Supreme Court.