Jeff York is wasting no time getting to know his clients as he tackles his latest business challenge.
At the outset of his conversation with an OBJ reporter on Thursday morning, the new CEO of premium fitness and wellness chain Altea Active made a point of mentioning he’d just finished a workout at the company’s Vancouver gym.
“I used to eat the Farm Boy food, come on,” the 61-year-old Ottawa native said with a chuckle, referring to the grocery retailer that grew into a powerhouse under his leadership. “It’s like every business – you’ve got to be with the customers, right?”
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The man best known for spearheading the expansion of Farm Boy and another revered Ottawa brand – discount chain Giant Tiger – will have plenty of opportunities to keep flexing his entrepreneurial muscles in his latest role.
Altea Active was launched in 2017 by a pair of former senior partners at Movati Athletic, Ottawa native David Wu and Michael Nolan. The company opened its first location in Winnipeg in late 2019 before expanding to Toronto in 2022 and Vancouver last year.
But the jewel in the fledgling fitness firm’s crown is slated to open later this year right here in York’s hometown.
At 129,000 square feet, the new facility in the former Canadian Tire store at 1660 Carling Ave. will be Altea’s largest location yet.
In addition to the latest in cardio and fitness equipment, its list of amenities includes nine group fitness studios with activities ranging from hot yoga to boxing, an aquatic centre with a three-lane, 25-metre pool and – capitalizing on the hottest trend in sports – six indoor pickleball courts.
York said the state-of-the-art fitness centre will offer something for just about everyone.
“My priority is to make (the Ottawa facility) the best fitness concept anybody has seen in Canada,” he explained, adding Altea is aiming to enrol a minimum of 10,000 members in the nation’s capital.
“We want to wow the customer. We want them to want to go to the gym.”
York, who was already a shareholder and a member of the company’s board before taking the reins as chief executive, scoffed at the notion that the fitness and wellness industry – a space dominated by firmly entrenched brands such as GoodLife – is a tough nut to crack.
‘Go where the demographics are right’
People say the same thing about the grocery business, he pointed out. “The thinnest margins of any industry are in grocery,” he noted.
But under York’s watch, Farm Boy expanded rapidly across the province before being sold to supermarket giant Empire Co. in 2019 for $800 million.
“We went from nine stores at Farm Boy to 49 in a ‘crowded’ grocery market in Ontario,” he said. “I see the same opportunity (at Altea). You go to where the demographics are right, where there’s demand for your offering and you just bring the right brand to the right customers and deliver on your promises. That’s hard to do for most people, but this is all I’ve ever done. It’s just another challenge.”
At Farm Boy, York explained, his team focused on providing a premium product while delivering top-notch service to consumers. He believes the same principles apply to the fitness industry, which he describes as “ripe for disruption.”
“Ottawa people are going to walk in and they’re going to say, ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever seen in fitness,’” York said. “That’s what I want people to say when they walk in.
“The key to competing is, don’t be like your competitors. You’ve got all these (low-cost gyms) where they want you not to use the club – you just get a cheap membership and you keep paying. We actually want the members to use the club.
“There’s really nobody putting all the modalities … into one (facility) and offering a premium member experience with all the boutiques inside. When you put all that together, it’s actually extremely good value for offering a premium product.”
The chain’s next location – a smaller, boutique-style facility at a former Nordstrom Rack outlet in Toronto’s Yorkville neighbourhood – is scheduled to open in early 2025.
From there, York is setting his sights on further expansion in the Greater Toronto Area and Western Canada.
“I love the brand; I love the team we have. We have tremendous white space to grow it across Canada. And it’s not just a Canadian thing – this could be international as well. Brands can go international if there’s demand. Our job is to create the demand, create the brand, create the concept and see where it goes.”
York said Altea, whose other financial backers include former Farm Boy CFO Marc Santerre, Smart Living Properties CEO Tamer Abaza and VCL Construction president Mark Dalton, is primed for success as long as it sticks to the formula that allowed his past businesses to thrive: focus on what you’re good at, build a dedicated team and execute your vision.
“Business hasn’t changed. Sure, technology has gotten better, but at the end of the day, you have to deliver on your promise to your customer. That’s going to be the challenge.”
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