Technogym’s founder and president, Nerio Alessandri, is planning to make Milan the “first wellness city,” as he has said in an interview with Corriere della Sera. In 2003, Alessandri founded the Wellness Foundation, based in Italy’s Romagna, where Technogym is also headquartered. The Wellness Foundation promotes scientific research, health education and the Wellness culture. In 2003, the Foundation launched a project called “Wellness Valley,” intending to make Romagna “the first district for knowledge and culture on wellness and good quality of life.” Alessandri is now planning to export the concept to Milan, where the Wellness Foundation has just inaugurated a new office.
Milan is the symbol city that sets the trends for the rest of the country, said Alessandri. The city hosted Expo 2015 and will host the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. The first step in the project is to create a Milan-based working group of about ten experts. According to Alessandri, the project could involve multiple sectors, from fashion, food and fitness to tourism, art and science.
In 2014, thanks to a collaboration between it and the Wellness Foundation, the Emilia-Romagna region became Italy’s first to include physical exercise in the therapies prescribed for the prevention and treatment of major chronic diseases. Alessandri founded Technogym in 1983 at the age of 22, together with his brother Pierluigi. The company’s first fitness equipment was designed and built in his own garage at home, in Cesena. In 2001, Nerio Alessandri received the Order of Merit for Labor from the President of the Italian Republic, becoming the youngest entrepreneur to receive this honor.
Technogym reported consolidated revenues of €175 million for the first quarter of 2023, representing a 15.2 percent increase from the same period of 2022. Technogym fitness equipment and digital technologies for fitness, sport and health are used in more than 100 countries.
