A second local company — medical beauty group PerFACE — on Friday announced its plan to take over two branches of the closed gym chain Physical Fitness and Beauty, and to honor the contracts held by clients with the Physical brand without additional charges.
The two branches of Physical, located in the Hollywood Plaza in Mong Kok and in the Capital Building in Wan Chai, will be rebranded as PerFIT, and will provide services to customers who have purchased gym memberships, personal training sessions and beauty treatment services from Physical, according to PerFACE.
PerFACE is the second company to express an interest in the properties of the closed gym chain following Physical’s unexpected shutdown in early September. A company named Healthy temporarily took over the Wan Chai branch but has reportedly stepped back from the business.
READ MORE: Money lost from HK gym closure reaches HK$113m amid probe
PerFACE has stated that it has no relationship with Healthy, and that its business interests are directly in Physical.
Additionally, PerFACE said it is working on plans to allow Physical’s former clients to use its services at the 11 medical beauty centers it owns.
The group also claimed that it is arranging job interviews with the over 700 former employees of Physical and has already hired about 200 of them. In the long term, and as market conditions improve, the group may hire more former Physical employees based on business conditions.
The city’s consumer watchdog said on Friday afternoon that it had learned of the takeover plan from PerFace on Wednesday.
Gilly Wong Fung-han, chief executive of the Consumer Council, said PerFACE may seek the consent of Physical’s former customers to access the information on their contracts, in a bid to move the business transfer forward.
READ MORE: Watchdog: Physical Fitness patron complaints involve HK$19m
As of 5 pm on Friday, the council had received 5,344 complaints relating to Physical’s sudden closure, involving transactions amounting to over HK$190 million ($24.47 million).
Contact the writer at fangxue@chinadailyhk.com
