In profile: Primal founder Steven Rinaldi

Steven Rinaldi calls his time at school “eventful” with a wry smile and admits it wasn’t for him. But what he lacked academically, he more than made up for physically, excelling in rugby and athletics early on.

He dropped out of school at 15 and it was once he joined a gym to bulk up for rugby that someone suggested he try bodybuilding. “Then someone suggested entering a competition, so at 17 I entered Junior Mr Britain and won it,” Rinaldi tells Insider.

Having already left home, he signed up to study sports performance at college, while making money as a mortgage advisor with the Royal Bank of Scotland.

“I had a friend working for a fitness company in Glasgow called Laidir Leisure, so I left the bank in 2002 and worked my way up to launching a sports nutrition brand for them, as well as running a few stores.

Rinaldi left Laidir in 2007 and went to work for a Taiwanese fitness company which produced own label fitness products for the likes of John Lewis and JJB Sports. “That was pretty successful for three years, but I was based between Taiwan and Stoke, while newly married, so I really wanted to move back.”

He rejoined Laidir as a director, running it from 2010, before the company was sold to a German retailer in 2015.

“At that point things were changing in the industry, strength was becoming more dominant than cardio and e-commerce was growing, as opposed to in-store,” said Rinaldi.

“Speaking to performance coaches and gym chains, their strength areas were getting busier and busier, but they din’t want to make things just for bodybuilders – so I though ‘I can create a company that can change the landscape of the gym floor’, making it more inviting and functional.”

Primal Strength was launched in Glasgow during 2016, building a line of 120 products. His reading of the gym sector seemed to be right, as the business made £2m in its first financial year, growing steadily since then to turnover of £15.5m in the year ending April 2023.

Combining the product capabilities he saw in Taiwan and China with a brand that would appeal to western gym-goers, Primal (the strength was dropped a few years ago) continues on its mission to make weight-lifting and strength-training more accessible.

The result is that 90% of the company’s gear is made in Asia – with some bespoke work on pads and dumbbells done in Glasgow – but what’s really been the growth driver is expanding to provide a full ‘turnkey’ solution.

“So we can do the lighting, flooring, full studio fit out, plus all the kit – few companies offer that,” explained Rinaldi.

“We’ve been fortunate, because early on we simply didn’t have the stock, I just didn’t want too much inventory versus cashflow – which created a bit of a supply and demand imbalance – but it does mean we’ve grown a solid and safe business.”

Rinaldi also self funded to begin with, using his portion of the profits from Laidir’s sale, before seeking growth funding in 2020.

“We had cash and a profitable business, but we were unsure about the way to build out internationally – taking risks on stock or staff to grow,” he said. “I spoke to Convex Capital and they introduced me to a smaller firm called Carbon, we put together a small memorandum, went to 15 private equity companies, met with three, one was Flywheel, and we went with them as they seemed to get us as a business.”

Primal now counts 45 members of staff, five of them with equity in the business.

Its kit is now used in about 500 gyms up and down the country – including JD Gyms, Energie Fitness and SoHo House – as well as by celebrities and athletes like Lewis Hamilton and James McAvoy. The company also works with many sports teams, designing and supplying performance centres at Burnley and Celtic football clubs for instance.

More recently, Primal moved into the London market by kitting out a Novo Gym and is ramping up international expansion – shipping its first containers to the US, moving into the Middle East and signing a deal with Virgin Active in South Africa.

“We’ve certainly got competition in the states for instance, as there are three or four really advanced strength companies there, but maybe what they’re not doing is really designing the space, doing the whole turnkey solution.

“Europe’s also slightly behind on the strength side of things, but the Primal brand travels well and there’s a huge opportunity for our consumer line here, so we’re promoting that through socials, influencers, events, etc.”

Rinaldi added that Primal is building its group of direct distributors in places like South Africa, the US and Middle East to allow it to meet demand and ship containers of kit straight from Asia.

“The strength trend only getting bigger, with studies keeping on showing the benefits, so it’s really just down to making it more accessible for people.”

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