Kate Cracknell talks to the Saudi Princess behind NuYu, the women-only health club chain in Saudi Arabia that aims to spread happiness through fitness

Why did you create NuYu?
In Saudi Arabia, 33.5 per cent of women are obese. That figure was published by the International Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It made me realise there was a huge need for an accessible, affordable fitness offering in the Kingdom; at that time, in 2011, fitness centres were perceived very much as a luxury, priced at US$250–300 a month and therefore inaccessible to most women. I wanted to change that.

Is this a personal mission for you?
I grew up as an overweight child and in my teens tried various diets. My weight yo-yoed for many years, but nothing seemed to work over the long term. I realised that if I wanted to have a healthy relationship with food, exercise was key.

When I started exercising, I realised how happy it made me. It took my focus away from how my body looked – it just made me feel good in myself and became an important part of my routine.

What’s your background?
I did a marketing degree in the UK, and at the same time I did my personal training qualification, as well as courses in things like TRX, kettlebells and functional therapy.

When I came back to Saudi, I wanted to find a way to serve my country in an area I was passionate about, so I decided to combine my marketing background with my physical education. That’s when I came up with the idea for NuYu.

What’s the philosophy?
NuYu focuses not only on how women look – on their size or shape – but also on how they feel. It’s all about happiness. That psychological and emotional aspect of fitness is very important for women.
NuYu’s values centre around being innovative, trustworthy and, very importantly, welcoming. We also aim to be accessible to Saudis and expats alike.

We set out to create a non-intimidating environment away from fitness facilities in cliquey boutique hotels or hospitals. Our clubs are designed to be homely, with soft furnishings, nice lighting and each feeling slightly different.

NuYu is affordable, priced at US$110 a month – but our clubs are still state of the art, with five-star service.

How has the response been?
Women in Saudi were just waiting for something like NuYu: a stylish, modern environment that is worth every penny and where they’re looked after.

There had never been anything like it in the market before. In fact, the Saudi fitness market was stuck in the 80s: lots of step aerobics and that sort of thing, with no real thought put into it, no goals set, no journey to get members there. That’s what I wanted to change.

I set out wanting to open one club where I could bring my vision to life. I wasn’t worried about making money – I just wanted to get women active.

Who funded the developments?
NuYu has been all my own investment and we simply aim to cover the costs of the business, with all profits given to charity. That’s part of my social responsibility as a member of the Royal Family – it’s how I want to contribute to society.

NuYu has also designed and funded the creation of leisure facilities at two local schools.

How has the business grown since it launched in 2011?
It has ended up being far more successful than I imagined. We now have six clubs – five in Riyadh and one in Al Khobar – each around 1,800–2,000sq m and catering for approximately 1,200 members.
In the six years NuYu has been in business, we’ve brought 10,000 women into activity.

They might be current or former members – they might even have joined another gym – but we’ve had 10,000 women in total come through our doors. That’s 10,000 women being active who might otherwise not have had the chance to be. I’d go so far as to say that achievement has been the highlight of my life so far.

We could have opened more clubs, but I’ve chosen instead to focus on our existing clubs, making sure the offering is always evolving and that a real sense of community is established for the members.

How has the culture developed?
I believe community is vitally important. If you plough ahead with opening new health clubs without establishing a community in each club as you go, they start to feel robotic – they don’t have the right energy to keep the members happy.

A focus on community is especially important in Saudi Arabia, because going to the gym is often the only outing for our members each week and it gives them a chance to meet and develop friendships with other like-minded women.

Crucially, we’ve put movement at the heart of all the socialising we offer – groups of women will come and do a class, or perhaps a ‘pay and play’ to do a small group training session: this means that they get to socialise and it’s fun, but they also – importantly – keep moving.

That’s important, because in Saudi, socialising is generally done around food. This means we can’t put cafés or juice bars in our clubs – only healthy vending – because otherwise that space would become the hub of the club and nobody would do any exercise.

Migrating socialising away from the food culture and towards a more active culture is a big challenge, but it’s central to what we do at NuYu.

Do your members need a lot of guidance?
They do, and that’s why it’s compulsory for every single member to have an orientation session when they join NuYu. These are led by our highly qualified international trainers, who discuss their goals and help them understand their bodies, so they appreciate their risk factors.

We’ve also set out our own activity guidelines, because the Saudi government is yet to issue any. We have a lot of members who haven’t exercised before and they often come in, go crazy for a month and then don’t come back. We wanted to set realistic, sustainable guidelines for them, so we settled on being active twice a week for 12 weeks.

What are your aims now?
We’ll review our plans at the end of this year: there may be opportunities to create satellites or pop-ups, for example, or a modified version of NuYu. Ultimately my focus is on getting as many Saudi women active as I possibly can.

We’re in discussions about some form of NuYu offering for girls. Legally we can’t cater for anyone under the age of 16 in our clubs, but girls get no PE at school and I’d like to be able to offer some sort of activity options for them.

I’d also like to do more to attract older women, as most of our members are aged 25–35. We’re going to run a more traditional media campaign, rather than the social media we usually use, to reach this audience.

However, my main focus at the moment is on consulting. I want to empower individuals who are looking to come into the fitness sector – people with new ideas to get the population active – and give them the support they need to bring their ideas to life.

Now is a great time for this, because there are so many opportunities for the fitness sector in Saudi at the moment. The government’s new 2030 Vision [a new strategy to get 40 per cent of the population active by 2030] has opened the door to a multitude of new fitness possibilities – and that includes opportunities for women and children. For that, we have Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud to thank – vice president of women’s affairs at the GSA (General Sports Authority). She’s been unrelenting in her commitment to getting approval for women’s fitness centre licensing in the Kingdom.

My dreams are always big. I never know where the future will take me, but wherever there’s an opportunity I’ll tap into it – whether it’s with NuYu or a new venture. Whatever I do, though, it will be in Saudi Arabia. This is my country and it’s where I want to serve.