In late 2009, PEI blogger and CEO Tim Banks wrote on his website, “a few years ago I started taking notice of the name UFIT as it was popping up at some of the events I attended...It wasn’t long fterwards that I saw a fun looking Mini Cooper all ‘pimped out’ (an expression from my oldest son) with the UFIT logos.”

That car was likely being driven by Eireann Rigby, and like Banks, other people took notice, too.

Rigby is the founder, director and lead instructor of UFIT, the dynamic PEI-based community fitness organization. A unique company with a unique vision, UFIT is big on empowerment and inspiration. The company website broadcasts a passion to “create an environment of freedom and acceptance” and to “operate as a strong collective unit dedicated to our community.” With eight locations around the Island – from Montague to Charlottetown to Summerside – UFIT welcomes Islanders of all ages and walks of life, asking a mere $5 on a pay-as-you-go basis. This has meant that “acceptance” translates into high participation from a diverse range of people: the classes are a true representation of the community. “We’ve got kids and senior citizens in the same classes,” says Rigby, “a mix of people in Lululemon and jeans. It’s really a huge slice of the community.”

In conversation with Rigby, who originally hails from Fredericton, NB, one word which comes up again and again to describe the feeling of a UFIT class is “party.” She is quick to describe the events as being about acceptance and fun first, and seeing the fitness come out of that. She’s certainly serious about the fitness: Rigby attended UPEI, taking a degree in science with a specialization in fitness and nutrition. And she’s got the chops to prove her own athleticism too: for years, she played professional basketball in the European leagues.

Like Banks, people took notice locally, and now, they’re doing so nationally. Rigby recently won the BDC Young Entrepreneur Award for Prince Edward Island for her work at UFIT. Speaking at the ceremony, she credited UFIT’s success to her husband (and master trainer) Gordon McNeilly, as well as the team of instructors and volunteers who make UFIT tick. But her motivation to excel still comes from empowering people. “Nothing beats the feeling you get when people tell you that you have changed their life,” she says.

ECC’s Alex Willis spoke with Eireann Rigby in May.

Alex Willis: What were your career aspirations as a child?

Eireann Rigby: I wasn’t always interested in fitness and nutrition. I did know that I was interested in helping people. I just wasn’t sure about how I would go about doing it. The fitness part didn’t really come up until much later. I’m a professional athlete by training, so there’s a fitness component to that. But it was really the people side of things that made me gravitate to fitness as a career choice, later on.

AW:So how did you make the transition from being an athlete to business?

ER: It happened pretty naturally. I used to play professional basketball, and I developed a lot of skills doing so, and began to understand why people are attracted to sports. I found that a lot of people who don’t participate in an organized sport don’t really have easy ways to belong to a group or a team. If they’re not going to a gym, where are they going to get active? So I said to myself, “Why can’t we organize a really diverse exercise culture that includes everyone,” something with a street party atmosphere. I guess you could classify it as a “fitness class,” but really, it’s more or less bringing community together.

AW: So how did it all get started after you got back from Europe?

ER: It required a sense of adventure, that’s for sure. It started very small – just a handful of people, and family. But if you love it, you work on it. We really played on the “word of mouth” around the business, spreading the news about it through the community.

AW: So what do you think is the biggest challenge in being a PEI-based business?

ER: Probably the fact that the population is so small. This is a big problem when you’re talking about expanding. Also, when you leave the major population centres of the island, it’s hard to bring people together. We’re in rural communities, though, supporting as many people as we can. But it’s a challenge when you’re looking to rent facilities, and pay instructors – you still need to pay the bills, at the end of the day. On the other side, in Charlottetown, you get over a hundred people per class in the winter months, which is fantastic.

AW: So why do you think you won the Young Entrepreneur Award?

ER: Probably because nobody had really done anything like UFIT before – certainly not on PEI. There are aerobics classes all over the place, but this is truly very different, and I think people understand that. Our atmosphere and culture has played a big part of this success.

The other reason why I think we’ve been so successful has been the way we tie in the business with our charitable efforts, with the UFIT Cares Foundation. It’s really helped our image in the community, and raised our profile. It’s certainly helped as a community-building exercise, and has helped our customers bond around a shared experience. They want to get out there and they want to “pass it on.”

AW: Tell me more about UFIT Cares.

ER: We fundraise all year for children in need. We’ve done extremely well, helping about 125 families – or about 300 island kids – per year. We’ve been doing it for three years now, and have met our fundraising goals each year.

Another charitable effort by UFIT is our participation in the Relay for Life [for the Canadian Cancer Society], where we’ve raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. Actually, we’ve got the biggest team in Canada! The Relay for Life Foundation in Charlottetown gives out Spirit Awards every year, and we’ve been recognized through that, too.

AW: What do you think distinguishes UFIT from the other major fitness outlets?

ER: The format, certainly. We’ve got a pay-as-you-go membership fee. So that’s very convenient for a lot of our members – it’s a manageable concept for them, because they don’t feel “tied in” or obligated. It also allows one-off opportunities, like a company participating for one day. Also, the diversity and the attitude that we bring is extremely well-received. The fitness is really a byproduct of our attitude, I think.

AW: What kind of retention rates do you have at UFIT? With no membership fees, how do you track your participation?

ER: We have excellent retention rates. People seem to be very “hardcore” with UFIT. The fact that they can do it whenever they want really helps. So you can belong to a gym and do other more traditional exercises, and still come back to us. It’s a question of flexibility and freedom – a question of options. When we see people, we tend to see them for years.

AW: You spent years as an athlete in Europe. How does fitness culture in Europe differ from that in Canada?

ER: I really think so. People get active at a young age in Europe. A lot of the kids there were involved in clubs and club teams. And there are a LOT of clubs! By the time they reach 16, 17, 18, their skill level is usually higher than what you typically see here.

AW: Is that a community support issue?

ER: The community businesses often advertise at those venues, so yes. But the people in the communities really get involved and participate. Even for sports involving young children. In Canada, where you might only get the participation to support one team, say, you’d get several teams in Europe for the same population level. And it’s for almost every sport you can think of: basketball, soccer, hockey – you name it.

AW: So what’s next for UFIT? Do you think your business model could be exported to other provinces or municipalities?

ER: We’ve considered it, but the problem is “duplication of service.” You always want to offer the same quality of service wherever you go. That’s easy with a product, but it’s a lot harder for a service. So one of the issues is finding the right people to take charge, people who are the right kind of leaders. We’re going to stay on the Island for now, but we have our eye out for the right individuals in other areas.

AW: Your business is not alone facing this issue. Many Atlantic Canadian businesses face a problem of “scaleability” when they’re looking outside their own borders. Sometimes, expanding beyond those borders means changing the fundamentals that made the business a success to begin with.

ER: Yes, it’s very much an issue of adaptation. There’s a completely different vibe for this thing in different cities – UFIT would play out very differently in Halifax or Toronto than it does on the Island. In some ways there’s more freedom – people in those cities are typically more “fitness-conscious” – but we’d lose some of the community feeling. So there are tradeoffs. But we’re always exploring new options!