Personal training comes to masses

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS: After being founded in Phoenix in 2001, Poliquin Performance was reopened in Rhode Island 2006 following a chance meeting in an East Greenwich gym. Above, co-owner Caroleen Jones, left, works with staffer Janelle Avila in the company’s gym. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS: After being founded in Phoenix in 2001, Poliquin Performance was reopened in Rhode Island 2006 following a chance meeting in an East Greenwich gym. Above, co-owner Caroleen Jones, left, works with staffer Janelle Avila in the company’s gym. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

A $16 million international business began with a chance meeting in a tiny gym in East Greenwich.
Caroleen Jones was working out and happened to meet Charles Poliquin, who used the gym as home base when he was in New England training hockey players.
“I was a marketing major out of Bryant University and at that time, I was working in operations for Hasbro, managing the international production of toys,” said Jones. A friend of hers was competing in a fitness competition and spoke of Poliquin’s stellar reputation as a strength coach.
“I had no idea who Charles was then,” said Jones. She learned that Poliquin had trained athletes, including Olympic medalists, in a wide range of sports. The athletes included sprinters, football players, long jumpers and speed skaters. As Jones got to know Poliquin, her marketing instincts took flight.
“I saw his special qualities and used to tell him, ‘I could probably run your business with my hands tied behind my back,’ ” Jones said. “I knew I could do it, because it had all the pieces of the puzzle.”
Poliquin had established Poliquin Performance in a gym in Phoenix in 2001.
“The industry was changing and hockey and football players and other professional teams were hiring their own strength coaches,” said Jones, whose grandparents lived in Phoenix. There she got to see Poliquin at work. “People were going to Phoenix to hang around his gym and learn from him.”
Jones and Poliquin began to re-envision Poliquin Performance.
“Let’s try to build this business based on education,” Jones said to Poliquin. In 2006, as co-owners of the redesigned business, Poliquin continued traveling to train clients around the globe and Jones became chief operating officer, working out of North Kingstown.
“My kids were little then and the business began to take over room after room in my house,” Jones said. In 2007 they moved the business into a 1,200-square-foot office in North Kingstown.
In 2009, the company moved into 16,000 square feet in The Greenwich Mills, making room for a teaching gym and more administrative space. In the past few months, the company began its push to attract a wider range of clients, in addition to athletes and executives. Jones said the target market includes conferences and “anyone who wants to invest in one-on-one training with a strength coach. We’re also offering some group training.”
There will be plenty of room for the growing list of clients. Poliquin Performance is building a new 60,000-square-foot facility, with a 20,000-square-foot gym, on 11 acres on South County Trail in East Greenwich. The facility is expected to be completed by next summer.
The company got financing assistance from the Small Business Administration and Washington Trust. After executives at Washington Trust handled Poliquin Performance’s financing details, they brought bank President Joe MarcAurele to show him the facility. “He seemed impressed. He became a paying client,” Jones said.
“I’m 61 years old and I’m falling out of shape,” MarcAurele said. “I realized this is expertise you can’t find in a gym. It’s personal training at an elite level.”
After working out three times a week for 12 weeks, MarcAurele said he’s delighted with the results. “I’ve seen a significant amount of lost body fat and an increase in lean body mass,” he said.
The Poliquin method drew trainer Stephane Cazeault from working with athletes in his private gym in St. Louis to Rhode Island. Director of strength and conditioning at Poliquin Performance, Cazeault said, “To me, this was an opportunity to work with Charles Poliquin and learn more from him. Growing up in Montreal, I’ve known about him as a trainer of Olympic athletes. He’s also been a mentor.”
A major advantage is that Poliquin training is more than a gym, said Cazeault. “We work with education and nutritional supplements,” he said.
Those supplements are a major part of the firm’s international strength.
“We have over 200 supplement products in our online store,” Jones said. “We ship products out of this Rhode Island location around the world.” In addition, the company has a European Union distribution center near Brussels. •COMPANY PROFILE
Poliquin Performance
OWNERS: Charles Poliquin and Caroleen Jones
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Strength training, nutrition counseling and nutritional supplements
LOCATION: 42 Ladd Street, East Greenwich
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 24 locally (plus four instructors who travel worldwide)
YEAR FOUNDED: 2006
ANNUAL SALES: $16 million

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