RSG Group, the German-based company that owns Gold’s Gym and whose founder Rainer Schaller died in a plane crash this fall, has a new owner and new managing directors.
Rainer Schaller’s brother, Gerd Schaller, inherited RSG Group, which was a 100 percent family-owned business, upon the death of Rainer Schaller. On Dec. 15, the company announced that Dr. Jobst Müller-Trimbusch and Hagen Wingertszahn had been appointed as managing directors of the company.
Sebastian Schoepe will remain as president and CEO of RSG Group North America, the company confirmed to Club Industry. (Watch Club Industry's interview with Schoepe about Gold's Gym, recorded one month prior to Rainer Schaller's death.)
Müller-Trimbusch has been part of RSG Group’s management team since 2020, serving as CFO. Before starting his career, he studied at the European Business School and complemented his academic career with a doctorate in the field of capital markets. During his career, he held various positions at Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Börse and Bertelsmann as well as a strategy consultancy. Subsequently, he worked as CFO at ICF Bank and later at equinet Bank.
Since 2016, Wingertszahn has been responsible for leading and managing the core business for all of RSG Group’s fitness brands in its home market as business manager for Germany. Prior to that, he spent almost five years as COO at the fitness studio chain Fitness First, where he was responsible for managing and controlling the operational business.
Under the new dual leadership, RSG Group, which has 21 brands, will sharpen its focus on its core fitness business in response to heightened public awareness of sports and health since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“By taking over the management of RSG Group, we are both following in the footsteps of the extraordinary entrepreneur Rainer Schaller, for whom we have the greatest respect,” Müller-Trimbusch said in the announcement. “Our priority is to ensure that we consistently continue our trendsetting and market-leading position that the Group has built over 25 years.”
The leaders will focus on strengthening and further expanding the existing fitness brands in Germany and abroad, Müller-Trimbusch said.
“In addition to our core business in Europe, our focus remains on significantly strengthening our presence in the U.S,” Wingertszahn said.
The two will work to find the right balance between preserving the roots and further developing the company, Wingertszahn said.
“We are fully aware of who we are succeeding, and we would like to thank the new owners for their confidence in us,” Wingertszahn said. “We see it as our greatest task to continue to make RSG Group sustainable, future-proof and centered 360 degrees around the customer.”
Rainer Schaller died in a plane crash near Costa Rica on Oct. 21. That crash also took the lives of his partner, Christine Schikorsky, and their children Aaron and Finja, along with an RSG Group colleague and the pilot of the private jet.
Rainer Schaller opened his first gym in 1997. Today, RSG Group owns 21 fitness, lifestyle and fashion brands that include Gold’s Gym, McFit, John Reed, Heimat, Holmes Place Spain, High5 and others.