9am Business interview: Mahavir Singh Nerwan, co-founder and director of Northern Gym Equipment
You jumped into entrepreneurship at just 21. What gave you the confidence to take such a big leap so early, and what do you know now that you wish you’d known then?
I think entrepreneurship is very much in my DNA and my family’s. Both my co-founders (brothers Aran and Hukam) and I watched our granddad run a factory, and our dad and uncle work as importers and wholesalers. It was very normal for us to be involved in family discussions on business in the evening.
I think that’s where we all caught the bug and developed a huge amount of confidence, just by witnessing it every single day. We saw the lifestyle, the ups and downs, the early mornings and the late nights and the stress, but we also saw the fruits of success: working hard and getting results, landing a big deal, or the relief when you’ve had a good year.
During COVID, we spotted an opportunity in the gym equipment market. So while I studied Economics at university, I turned down a corporate banking graduate scheme opportunity and went straight into importing and wholesaling gym equipment to local gym suppliers. Very quickly, we acquired Northern Gym Equipment (NGE) in 2023. At that point, it was very small and turning over just £100k. We re-launched in 2024 and have been scaling it ever since.
While we’ve grown NGE rapidly, achieving 150-fold growth in two years and forming partnerships with major UK retail partners including John Lewis and Matalan, one thing I wish I knew back then was just how big the fitness industry is. When we started out in gym equipment, our ambitions and our idea of the market were relatively small. If we’d known the scope of the opportunity out there, we’d have been more dialled in early doors and done it 10 times faster.
Fitness has been a big part of your life, from competing in tennis nationally to CrossFit at a high level. How has being an athlete shaped the way you approach business, leadership and dealing with setbacks?
We all grew up in a very fitness-focused family, so it’s been a huge part of our lives. We all played football, I competed in tennis on a national level, and we all got into CrossFit, bodybuilding or weight training as we got older. That’s why a gym brand was so easy.
We’d been customers of this industry for over 10 years, so we knew the product, we knew what the customer wanted, and there was no massive learning curve in terms of the product range. But business, by nature, doesn’t go smoothly; there are always things that go wrong, good days and bad days. Learning to emotionally manage that, keep on going, and not give up on where you want to be in the next year or five is really important.
Being an athlete in your younger days- competition, grit, hard work, overcoming loss and adversity- these are all aspects that build a really strong and well-rounded business owner and leader and definitely give us an edge. We’ve always wanted to win in everything we do, and business is no different.
You co-founded NGE with members of your family – what have been the biggest lessons, challenges and rewards of building a business with people you’re also related to?
Co-founding with my brothers has been an incredible journey. Not only do I think, ‘who can you trust more than your own blood?’ but we’re also very fortunate that the three of us share the exact same mindset – driven and focused on going in one direction.
Our family business has scaled way beyond any of our expectations, and now we have teams and employees and advisors and consultants, but at the core of it, it’s still the three of us. The same three that did our first listing on the website and ordered our first container of gym equipment are the same three now running a multi-million-pound business.
That journey we’ve gone through together makes it more special. Often, being a business owner can be relatively lonely, and that’s something the three of us have never had to face. We fight every battle together, enjoy the wins together, and get over the hurdles and setbacks together. Of course, we get in each other’s way, and we argue and fight just like every close relative does, but it’s all part of the process. The three of us can’t imagine having a business with anyone else.
You talk about NGE being “Built to Work” and creating something that lasts rather than chasing trends. Where does that long-term mindset come from, and how does it influence the decisions you make as a founder?
I find that in the fitness industry especially, trends – whether it’s a workout routine or a new product – are everywhere. Jumping on them can work exceptionally well at the time and might even give you a two- or three-year cycle, but what happens once that ends?You’re left reliant on jumping to the next trend.
We’ve always avoided that and seen NGE as a lifelong business that can span across all fitness products and industries, be in multiple markets and regions, and sell in multiple ways. We’re building our business to work forever, and to grow forever, just like our gym equipment is built to work, so people can train and work out and reach their goals.
What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a founder so far, and how did you navigate it?
I think the biggest challenge that I’ve faced is rapid scale-up. When you scale so fast, cash, employees, and warehousing are all things that you run out of very quickly. Then you need more structure and more staff, a bigger warehouse space, and more cash to throw into holding more stock, more marketing, and more growth.
At that point, it’s easy to play it safe, slow it down, make it more steady, but we want to be the biggest as soon as possible. That means being dynamic and aggressive and watching everything – trade, cash flow, employees, marketing, warehousing, operations – like a hawk. It’s about making sure that you do every little detail right because all the little things will add up to the best result at the end.
If you could go back and have a conversation with your 21-year-old self on the day you started NGE, what would you tell him?
I’d say believe in yourself more. Back yourself more. Go for it, and go with your gut. In the early days, we were very cautious about the market dipping, having too much stock, losing this selling opportunity, or that relationship. No matter how successful and skilled you are, you will always have that doubt; you just get better at backing yourself as time goes on.