LEVERAGING THE GREEN
What do you get when you mix world travel, green beer, pro ball and Dragon’s Den? Guy Chaham, of Dartmouth’s Green Gym, apparently.
Guy arrived in Halifax on St. Patrick’s Day, 2003. Despite having lived in Mexico, New York, South Africa and his native Israel, and in spite (or perhaps because) of being surrounded by green beer swilling folks, Guy decided to lay down roots for a while. As an outsider he saw potential in the very things that many locals faulted. He looked at the traditional conservatism of this province and saw a market ripe with opportunities for innovation.
Born and raised in Israel, he is a tall guy from short parents. (“Probably the mailman”, he quips.) He started playing basketball at 6 years old, and eventually grew to be recruited to the national team. He was offered a scholarship in the U.S. but, shortly after fulfilling his military services obligations, a motorcycle accident left him with knee injuries. While he did go on to play pro ball in Israel, after physical rehabilitation, he was unable to take advantage of the hard sought scholarship.
So instead of a NBA career, he opened a flower shop. Next he started working real estate deals; and then things got difficult in Israel. Not liking what he saw happening around him, he moved to NewYork where he worked as a rep for Visa. Eventually returning home to Israel, he worked with an internet startup that did online job recruitment, but the economy tanked and so did the start up. There were no jobs to recruit for.
Meanwhile Guy had been exploring his creative side, painting in oil and sculpting in steel. He badly wanted to show his work but was blocked by an insular art scene in Israel. The attitude so incensed him that he decided to open a gallery that would be open to anyone who wanted to exhibit. The gallery opening caught the attention of a small non-profit art organization who approached him to partner with them. Together they went on to successfully mount shows based on a cooperative business model. Members paid a small fee and were guaranteed a group show. The group show concept meant a decent opening turnout; the friends and family of 5 or 6 artists creating a wider, larger
audience than a solo show would be likely
to generate. By the time Guy Chaham left Israel again, they were up to 500 members and 4 galleries.
His first business attempt here in Halifax was an ill-fated nightlife publication called Next Magazine. After that, he collaborated with two savvy women from the Halifax art scene to put out a high end catalogue of local artists. It was an expensive endeavour that didn’t see a second publication, but both the catalogue and the club magazine were novel ideas for Halifax. Guy Chaham was pushing the envelope.
He went back to his fitness roots. While working with Nubody’s Fitness, Guy determined he wanted to do something health-related. He imported bone density scanners from Israel, then partnered with the Dairy Farmers of Nova Scotia and a chain of pharmacies to do clinics for women, checking bone density and educating about osteoporosis. Next he imported portable defibrillators. They may be commonplace now but they weren’t at the time, and he sold a lot of units.
On a trip back to Israel to visit his parents, Guy saw outdoor gyms. “Wow,” he thought, “this is a preventive solution.” He saw how many people were using them, and loved the idea of the gyms as proactive and accessible. He bought samples from China, loaded them in the back of a truck and drove across Canada, stopping at trade shows and rec centres as he went. “Grass roots traveling sales,” he says, describing those days.
The response he got told him that he was onto something. It needed nurturing, but it was there. However, there were issues importing from China. The equipment needed to be redesigned to North American specs, they had problems with order fulfillment, and then there were human rights and environmental concerns. There was no way of knowing what was going into the products (i.e. lead in the paint). As well, worker conditions horrified Guy. He witnessed people working with liquid fibreglass for hours on end with no masks, in rooms he couldn’t even bear to enter. There was also the carbon footprint of shipping to consider. When Mother Nature flexed her muscles in the form of an earthquake that devastated parts of China, getting anything out became virtually impossible. The Olympics followed on top of the clean up and took priority over pretty much everything else in China. Guy Chaham knew he needed to do something else to meet client orders.
He decided to bring it all to Dartmouth. While his production costs would go up, he believed the “Made in Canada” label would offset them, and he was right. Green Gyms now does everything in-house, with Guy as the primary designer. All the designs are tested by a kinesiologist, and he is working with government to create a national set of safety standards for outdoor fitness equipment. The standards will be win-win for him; he’ll ensure his industry is providing safe equipment for public use, and he’ll ensure he stays out front of the competition. Green Gyms is the only company manufacturing domestically, and he knows his competitors’ Chinese equipment won’t pass; it’s just not as safe.
Green Gyms has gone from 2 to 25 employees in 2 years. They are selling internationally, albeit cautiously. Guy Chaham doesn’t want to expand too much, too fast. They currently control their materials, know the paint they are buying locally is lead-free, and their steel is 98% recycled. Guy is building jobs at a time when everyone else is cutting them. And while he is unimpressed with the amount of funding available through government agencies, he did get a little help from the Dragons, having successfully pitched his business on the highly rated show.
Down the road he hopes to be licensing designs around the world, but for now, Guy Chaham has a healthy enough business going to make most local entrepreneurs green with envy.
Submitted by Jacquie Thillaye
www.shapecommunications.ca
Contact her at:
jacquie@shapecommunications.ca
