Success story: after Nîmes and Montpellier, Édouard Texte establishes Fitness park throughout Spain

Édouard Texte, de pilote de course à patron et propriétaire de salles de sport. Midi Libre – DR

The man is in a hurry. At 37, after six years in Montpellier, Edouard Texte has already conquered Spain with ever larger venues.

He is 37, already has a nice CV, a great career, lots of ambition. And better is yet to come. The man is moving fast, very fast. Like when he was driving Formula 3. A man in a hurry, then. “I come from Normandy and I have always had a great desire to undertake. At 23, I went to a specialist trade fair.“And he found happiness there: a gym in the making called Fitness Park. He would open the first one as a franchise in Nîmes. “I didn't have the means to aim to enter a big city. The gym was a hit, it allowed me to come to Montpellier."

Odysseum, a turning point

By opening Odysseum, his business will really take off. "It was the provincial Fitness park that had the best results."From 800 m2, it almost and quickly doubles the surface area of ​​the room: 1,400 m2. The business is on track. On the road 2018, it is Vendargues which is opened. With always the same principle: think big and be visible. In Vendargues, it is unmissable, members can lift weights, do squats and other on 1,800 m2. “At the time, it was one of the largest franchise in France. But the product evolves quickly."

Montpellier from 2015 to 2021

Always higher, always bigger. Having arrived in Montpellier in 2015, he was already on his way. In 2021, he headed to Spain. There, there was everything to do. And above all, if in France, gyms suffered with Covid, in Spain, they were declared essential activities after a month and a half, whereas in France, they would remain closed for a year… He joined forces with Stéphane Miras, his Parisian alter ego who, like him, wants to eat everything. Together they will swallow and lock Spain.“By staying in France, at most, I could have opened seven Fitness Parks. In Spain, it's 300.” 100 for him, 200 in franchise. Of course, he's keeping Barcelona, ​​where he now lives, and Madrid in his pocket.

It's sold

Spain as El Eldorado then, but not without one last coup of which he has the secret. The opening of Fitness Park Comédie, 1,800 m2 on the footbridge between Polygone and the train station. To impose himself on the file, he had to fight. He won and invested the entire ground floor of this Du-Guesclin block. The trick was done. And done. “I was offered to sell. At first I didn't want to. I said no several times. The buyers insisted, I finally gave up.”

The four Montpellier-Nîmes Fitness Parks are sold. He will still accompany them until the end of the year.

I subscribe to read the rest