Vijaywada, 24 April, 2007: The Talwalkars Better Value Private Limited (TBVF), better known as Talwalkars, opened a branch of its chain of health centres in the city on Monday.

Located in the second floor of Matha Towers near Benz Circle, the centre can accommodate 1,500 to 2,000 members and will remain open to public from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on all days of the week. The health centre is divided into different sections to cater to needs of customers.

"This is the fourth state-of-the-art health and fitness centre we have opened in Andhra Pradesh, after Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam," said Prashant Talwalkar, managing director of the TBVF Group.

Good scope
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Talwalkar described Vijayawada as one of the rapidly growing cities, which was why the company had found a scope to extend its services to fitness freaks here. He said the Vijayawada centre would also provide specialised services like massage, nutrition, counselling and physiotherapy. "The quality of the equipment, result orientation and hygiene form part of our services and some of our trainers are qualified physiotherapists," he said.

Spread on an area of 8,500 sq. ft., the health centre had a gymnasium, a counselling room, weight loss/gain programmes, cardio, spinning, resistance and free weight training equipment imported from Nautilus, a world leader in fitness equipment.

The centre had nearly 50 employees. The instructors and nutritionists had undergone intensive training at the Talwalkars' own training academy in Mumbai.

Established in 1932, the Talwalkars had nearly 45 branches across the country, said Madhukar Talwalkar, chairman.

Te Talwalkars announced a special offer of membership for Rs. 10,000 a year for those who enrolled themselves in the first 10 days of the launch.