Mumbai, 17 July, 2007: The Future Group in partnership with Talwalkars, the leading chain of health centers has launched a new initiative, TALWALKARS FIT & ACTIVE, which offers health, fitness and gym services within shopping malls and consumption centers. Talwalkars Fit & Active centers have state-of-the-art gymnasiums, weight-loss centers and health spa along with personalized counseling services of dieticians, nutritionists, physiotherapists, weight-loss trainers and personal fitness trainers. Along with these facilities, Talwalkars Fit & Active will retail best-in-class fitness equipments and accessories to its customers.

The first Talwalkars Fit & Active center has been launched at Future Group's Orchid City Center mall in Central Mumbai and has received a phenomenal response from customers. On an average thousand customers have been accessing the facility for the past two months. The joint venture company, Talwalkars Pantaloon Fitness Private Limited, now plans to launch 50 Talwalkars Fit & Active centers over the next three years in shopping malls across the country. The company plans to spend around Rs 2 crore as initial investment in each of these centers.

These centers will be equipped with specially imported equipments from the best fitness equipment manufacturers in the world, including Nautilus, Trecor and Schwinn and will also offer fitness regimes like yoga, aerobics, spin-cycling etc. Located within shopping malls and consumption centers, these centers will have world-class ambience, will be located in prime locations and have ample parking facilities for its clientele. Going forward, the company plans to launch Health Clubs that will have gyms, spas, swimming pools and offer customers with a complete range of options in the areas of health, wellness and beauty.

While sharing the expansion plans of these centers, Mr. Prashant Talwalkar, Managing Director, Talwalkars Better Value Fitness Pvt. Ltd., said, "Having been in this business for over seven decades, we are now seeing a significant uptrend in customer spending on health, fitness and preventive health care. In urban India, consumption centers and shopping malls are places where customers are spending most of their time and money. With Future Group as our partner, we will soon be able offer customers the best-in-class health and fitness facilities within shopping malls in all tier I and most of the tier II cities in India".

Mr. Kishore Biyani, Group CEO, Future Group said, "Increasingly, Indian consumers are becoming very conscious about their health and fitness. Preventive health care services we well as health and wellness programs now attract a significant part of the consumer's expenditure. There is an opportunity for us to offer these services within our malls and consumption centers wherein customers can benefit from better accessibility, ambience and parking facilities. Talwalkars being the most renowned and trusted name in this industry, we partnered with them to offer our customers an entire gamut of services and products in the areas of fitness and preventive health care."

The joint venture company, Talwalkars Pantaloon Fitness Pvt. Ltd is set to play a leading role in Future Group's presence in the Health & Wellness business division. It is also a step towards offering a complete bouquet of shopping, entertainment and lifestyle options for customers visiting Future Group malls. The Talwalkars Fit & Active centre set-up at Orchid City Centre of Mumbai Central, is a spacious workout area adhering to all the quality and hygiene standards of Talwalkars facilities. Strategically located amidst a section of high-end beauty products and Future Group's beauty saloon the fitness centre is hard to miss. Spread over an area of 7000 square feet the fitness centre has a gymnasium, counseling room, massage room and fitness equipments. Providing specialized services by trained instructors, physiotherapists and nutrition counselors the gym is accessible from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on all days of the week.

About Talwalkars Better Value Fitness Pvt. Ltd.
Talwalkars Better Value Fitness Pvt. Ltd (TBVF) established in 1932 popularly known as Talwalkars is India's largest chain of health centers. With over 100,000 members and close to 50 existing branches, Talwalkars is the only health care chain in India to have set up ultramodern branches in most of the major cities across the country.

The success of Talwalkars can be attributed to their personalized approach towards their customer which includes proficient advice & supervision from an in house team of dieticians & physiotherapists. By leveraging its expertise of over 75 years, Talwalkars specializes in innovative programmes such as the Personal Exercise Programme (PEP), body sculpting and body shaping which ensures that their customers not only gain the desired results but at the same time make exercising an enjoyable experience. In addition, Talwalkars continuously engage in facility upgrades by bringing in state-of-the-art gym equipments that provides world class benefits to their patrons.

Talwalkars Nutrition Centre which is a part of every branch provides simple, effective and scientific ways to lose and gain weight. Their programmes include daily diet counseling, exercising, and steam and sauna baths. The recently established Research and Development (R&D) department in conceptualizes health programmes that is tailor made to suit every individual needs.

About Future Group
Future Group is the country's leading business group that caters to the entire Indian consumption space. It operates through six verticals: Future Retail (encompassing all lines of retail business), Future Capital (financial products and services), Future Brands (all brands owned or managed by group companies), Future Space (management of retail real estate), Future Logistics (management of supply chain and distribution) and Future Media (development and management of retail media spaces).

The group's flagship company, Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited operates over 5 million square feet through 450 stores in 40 cities. Some of its leading retail formats include, Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Central, Food Bazaar, Home Town, EZone, Depot, Health & Beauty Malls and online retail format, futurebazaar.com.

Future Group companies include, Indus League Clothing, that owns and retails brands like Indigo Nation and Scullers and Galaxy Entertainment that manages Sports Bar, Brew Bar and Bowling Co. Future Capital Holdings, the group's financial arm, focuses on asset management and consumer credit. It manages assets worth over $1 billion that are being invested in developing retail real estate and consumer-related brands and hotels.

The group's joint venture partners include Italian insurance major, Generali, French retailer ETAM group, US-based stationary products retailer, Staples and UK-based Lee Cooper and India-based Talwalkar's, Blue Foods and Liberty Shoes.

Future Group's vision is to, "deliver Everything, Everywhere, Every time to Every Indian Consumer in the most profitable manner." The group considers 'Indian-ness' as a core value and its corporate credo is - Rewrite rules, Retain values.

For Further Information:
Grishma Shah - 9819959344
Jenny John - 9833518897