Seara Cambodia country manager Anthony S Gaglardi outlines the region’s leading fitness equipment, sports construction and active recreation solutions provider’s successes and shares its plans to grow the Kingdom’s burgeoning sports and fitness market.

When and where did the Seara story begin?

Sports Engineering And Recreation Asia Ltd (Seara) was founded in December of 1999 by George Foose, Patrick Dean and Ken Stevens.

Headquartered in Bangkok, we have branch offices and showrooms located around the Southeast Asia region to serve the growing fitness and sports requirements.

What services does Seara supply?

Seara is the regional leader specialising in the design, development, equipment supply and installation of international standard sports, recreation and fitness facilities in Southeast Asia and beyond.

We provide high quality products and services to many market sectors including private homes, health and fitness facilities, private clubs, education institutions, hotels and resorts, property developments, commercial clients and governmental clients.

In the Seara corporate network, we feature a family of world-leading fitness and sports brands including Life Fitness, Hammer Strength, ICG, Octane Fitness, Balanced Body, Escape Fitness, True Fitness, Power Plate, Icaros, Brunswick, Concept2, Kompan, MyEquilibria, Evolt 360, MyZone, Act Global, Laykold, Rephouse, and more. To date, Seara has successfully completed thousands of projects in Southeast Asia – and counting.

When did you set up in Cambodia?

Our Phnom Penh office and showroom opened its doors for operations on July 5, 2013. We have since relocated to our current location next to the iconic Independence Monument, as of December 2020.

Seara now operates in eight countries – Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. In Thailand, we have offices and showrooms in Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Samui and Hat Yai. With all regional offices combined, Seara has a total of more than 200 team members serving our clients regionally.

What has been the secret of Seara’s success and regional expansion?

One of the key elements contributing towards Seara’s successes is our wealth of professional and dedicated team members that strive on a daily basis to serve our customers to the best of their ability. It goes without saying that our strong network of clients and partners play a major part of our success factor.

Without their continued trust, belief and unwavering support in Seara to consistently deliver the exclusive world-leading fitness brands we represent, we would not be where we are today.

Our resilient partnerships coupled with our evolved understanding of the industry allows Seara to position itself as the industry leader that is always focused on keeping ahead of the trends and supplying everything that is new and innovative in the market.

Tell us something about your business model.

What makes Seara unique is our consultative approach to each and every project rather than focusing on just selling.

Our many years of experience in the region in both quality fitness equipment and sports construction materials truly sets Seara apart as we provide a full solution for top-notch fitness, recreational or sports facilities from conceptual design to delivering quality products, complemented with a solid aftersales service.

What is the size of the sports equipment market in Cambodia/the region?

In many ways, the fitness and sports industry in Cambodia is still in its infancy particularly compared to our direct neighbours Thailand and Vietnam.

However, it is interesting to note that the annual turnover of the fitness industry in Thailand was reported in a Statista 2020 study to be roughly $50 million, while Vietnam’s health and fitness market size in 2020 was $186 million, according to the same report.

In 2019, Nikkei Asia reported that according to Euromonitor, a UK research company, the health-related market in Cambodia is estimated to grow to more than $460 million in 2023.

What are Seara’s goals and are there any developments in the pipeline?

We want to help develop the fitness and sports industry for a stronger Cambodia. More than ever before, the pandemic has made the world realise the importance of personal health and fitness. We play an essential role in inspiring our communities get more fit, healthy and active.

Our focus is on adding value to everything we do for our clients as well as our overall contribution to the growth of the Kingdom by providing quality and unique experiences so that you can ‘feel the Seara difference’.

In 2020 we helped customise, supply and install first-class fitness equipment solutions for the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Phnom Penh. In 2021, our team collaborated with Go Gym Cambodia on their state-of-the-art commercial fitness centre in Tuol Kork and also helped our client at Premium Fitness to set up the very first ‘Official Hammer Strength Training Centre’ gym in Cambodia.

Last year also saw Seara construct two full-sized tennis courts and one full-sized basketball court for the American University of Phnom Penh (AUPP), where one of the two tennis courts has been built to the Australian Open standard.

We look forward to introducing new products from our global partners in the coming months as the fitness landscape continues to evolve. We’re committed to delivering fitness and sports solutions from the world’s best brands attached with the best aftersales service in the market.

To get closer to our customers, we are soon launching our new e-commerce website, which means getting your favourite fitness equipment and accessories delivered to your doorstep with just a few simple clicks.

Seara aims to be the preferred choice for quality fitness equipment, sports construction and active recreation solutions in Cambodia.