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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1498118
O n paper, Chris Smith is the ideal candidate to run a fitness chain. Growing up in California, he played baseball and basketball and ran track and field before trying his luck at professional football as a young adult. "Leadership, I think, came naturally to me," he says. What you probably wouldn't guess is that the skills required to run a hobby farm were also instilled in him from a young age. Smith started visiting con- struction sites with his father at 10 years old, so manual labour and the more technical aspects of running a farm were things he learned naturally. He also spent a large chunk of his childhood in the country- side: "I grew up in rural North- ern California, and my wife is also passionate about animals and holistic living." In 2017, Smith and his wife, Randal, purchased their six- acre farm in Washington to "live off of the land," and to control the quality of the food they consumed as a family. As the president and CEO of Rich- mond-based Fitness World, he splits his time between the Lower Mainland and across the border, claiming that his daily commute is much shorter than his colleagues' from Maple Ridge and Abbotsford. Smith took over as the oper- ating partner when Steve Nash Fitness World went bankrupt three years ago. He was presi- dent and CEO of the former en- terprise, so not only did he take a risk by buying the business, he also carried out the tough job of laying off hundreds of employees during COVID. "In our business, there are certain things that might not be the most fun to do, but you've got to do it," he maintains. "And that's sometimes what you've got to do on the farm." Now Smith operates 16 Fit- ness World facilities in B.C. and runs three separate entities under the company's umbrella: the British Columbia Personal Training Institute, for aspiring personal trainers; All Things Fitness and Wellness, a digital media company spotlighting "people behind the business- es"; and, most recently, Train by FW, a boutique personal training space for independent trainers. W E E K E N D WA R R IOR WARRIOR SPOTLIGHT Fitness World has 700 employees and 16 gyms across B.C. Fifteen of those are in the " HVLP category," according to its president and CEO, Chris Smith, which means "high value, low price." Smith remembers seeing his own body change through exercise and condition- ing as a young adult, and he started his career in the fitness industry as a personal trainer himself. "I never set out to be a CEO, I never set out to own a company, I just wanted to help people," he says. "And I still think about it that way today. It's just on a different scale, from a different position, on a different chair." FARM FIT Chris Smith is not afraid to get his hands dirty Gym Tan Lawn Fitness World president and CEO Chris Smith digs into his love for living holistically By Rushmila Rahman O FF T H E C LO C K ( quality time ) HANA PESUT MAY/JUNE 2023 BCBUSINESS.CA 57