From his first studio in Hong Kong, Pure Yoga founder Colin Grant has built an international health and fitness empire
	Over 2,000 Hongkongers do yoga each day at Pure Yoga studios across the city
	Yoga is a great equaliser – it's "just you and your mat", says Colin Grant

Hong Kong is hot with yoga fever. Hip versions of this ancient form of physical and mental exercise are taking the city by storm, with everyone from executives to family groups joining in.

In fact, the only thing hotter than yoga in this city is the pace of its acceleration. Once described as "the caviar of yoga", Hong Kong boasts the swankiest studios, most celebrated teachers and a wide range of designer gear.

So highly regarded is its yoga scene that in June, hundreds of people flew in from 44 countries to participate in Hong Kong's first international yoga conference*. Yet just a few years ago, yoga was a niche market catering mostly to the converted. One man credited with driving the shift is businessman Colin Grant, founder and CEO of leading health and fitness brand, Pure Group.

A New Zealander who came to Hong Kong "for six months" in 1977 and is still here 30 years later, Mr Grant was running a video rental store when he took his first yoga class in 2001.

Birth of a yogi

"As a competitive tennis player for 15 or 20 years, I was familiar with coming out of the gym feeling tight and exhausted," he said. "With yoga, it was different. I came out of my class feeling younger, freer, energised, and more relaxed. I enjoyed it so much, I wanted everyone to try this great thing."

He decided a change in the yoga environment would encourage more people to give it a go. With no firm business plan, he decided to open an upmarket studio where "there were towels and mats and lockers". He branded it Pure Yoga.

"People thought I was crazy; that the market wasn't ready," Mr Grant recalled. "At the time Hong Kong only had a few small, boutique studios, and I was essentially tripling the city's yoga space in a day, and investing HK$8 million (US$1 million). But because it was different, people really wanted to try it."

Word soon spread, and within a couple of weeks of opening, 250 "first timers" were turning up every day at Pure's 6,500 square feet studio in Central. Before the year ended he'd opened a second studio, twice as big, in Causeway Bay, and then Pure Yoga in Mongkok at a massive 35,000 square feet.

Pure growth

Today, Pure Yoga has four studios in Hong Kong - and is due to open a fifth in September or October, one in Taiwan, and one in Singapore, with a second opening in September. From purely doing yoga, Pure has evolved into a lifestyle brand employing 500 people, and incorporating retail and training divisions, the gymnasium chain Pure Fitness and the stylish RED Bar + Restaurant in Two ifc, Hong Kong's tallest building. The Pure Group is also looking at opportunities in the Chinese mainland.

In Hong Kong alone over 2,000 people a day do yoga at Pure's studios, where they can also buy from a wide range of designer yoga gear from globally renowned names. So mainstream has yoga become that top brands like Nike and Louis Vuitton have yoga collections - even Stella McCartney has just brought out a range, working with adidas.

Mr Grant firmly believes it won't be a passing fad. "Yoga has sustainability," he says. "It's something that has been around for over 5,000 years, and has only just become popularised in the past couple of years. I feel it will appeal to a very broad spectrum as people realise there is so much more to learn (from yoga), and how it can make them get stronger and fitter."

He adds that yoga is a great equaliser. "It's something for all walks of life. It doesn't matter if you're a big, beefy man, or a diminutive woman – yoga doesn't come down to strength or size, and once there, it's just you and your mat."

* Evolution Asia, Asia's largest-ever yoga conference, was held at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 1 – 4 June, 2007. With around 1,800 participants attending, organisers expect it will become an annual event.

Related links
Pure Yoga
Asia Yoga Conference