Eric Levine is on a roll. The chairman and CEO of California Wow Xperience is making a final inspection of his latest club, a four-storey, Bt160-million fitness centre that opened last week in The Esplanade on Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok.

He sweeps through the 3,700-square-metre centre with a team of managers by his side.

"Let's move the free weights closer together so members can have a more efficient, better workout. Let's tone down the lighting in the pilates and Planet Yoga studios so they have a more relaxed feeling," he says, marching through the cardio and resistance-machine areas, the aerobics and yoga studios, the locker rooms and reception areas. His staff take notes or scurry off to get the job done.

Levine will open another mega-gym in Chiang Mai's Airport Mall at the end of the month. Next month, he will launch a 2,700-square-metre gym in Pattaya's Siam Future and a 4,200-square-metre fitness centre in Bangkok's Central Rama II.

Thailand's top fitness guru expects to have 14 clubs in the Kingdom by the end of the year, doubling the number of centres it had last year, as part of California Wow's 2007 expansion programme valued at Bt678 million to Bt847.5 million. He says membership is approaching 100,000.

"Fitness awareness has permeated Thai society," he says. "People see fitness as a key to good health, yet only 1 per cent - versus 15 per cent in the US - are members of clubs," says Levine. "We want to change people's lives through fitness, stressing the importance of a healthy body, mind and spirit. That's one reason why we have yoga at every club; it balances all three."

Levine, who earned his first 1 million Canadian dollars (Bt29.97 million) in the fitness industry before he was 25, bringing super-sized fitness clubs to Asia in 1996. He opened clubs in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea, then sold most of his properties to his US partner, 24-Hour Fitness, to concentrate on his Thai properties. (He still has three two Planet Yoga studios and a Bikram Yoga studio in Hong Kong. He sold his Seoul clubs last December.) He now is expanding his Thai "exer-tainment" empire into print, television and food and beverages.

His Wow fitness magazine, in partnership with Rasina Uberoi and her Media Transasia Thailand, celebrates its first anniversary this month, with Eric's long-time girlfriend, supermodel Joy Varaluk Vanichkul, on its cover. Wow enjoys a monthly circulation of 50,000.

He has just launched the "20-Minute Workout", an aerobics show on the Chic TV channel, and later this year his "Yoga for All" with Planet Yoga's Master Kamal will expand from Thailand's Money Channel to a station in India.

He's partnering with D'Lush, the ueber-chic San Diego, California, coffee-tea-juice-ice cream beverage chain, which will be launching its first Thai outlet in The Esplanade in June. Additional branches are on the way.

And he's in discussions with a US financier about exporting "the California Wow fitness factor" to Vietnam, India and the Middle East.

Does Levine ever stop cutting deals, hiring staff (more than 1,000 in Thailand) and signing new club members?

"Actually, I just got back from 10 days in India with my dear friend Swami Veda Bharati," says Levine, a 51-year-old vegetarian, who does 90 minutes of Dhammakaya meditation daily before moving on to yoga, cardio and weight training.

In India, Levine and Swami Veda Bharati meditated, attended a festival for yogis and discussed spirituality, including the prickly matter of harmonising spirituality with business.

This is hardly uncommon for Levine, who was born in Montreal's Cote Saint Luc Jewish enclave but today embraces elements of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and Christianity.

Levine and Joy recently hosted a mini-ecumenical lunch at their home overlooking the Chao Phya River. Among the guests were the Venerable Luangphi Somsak of Wat Dhammakaya, Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor and Father Joe Maier of the Archdiocese of Bangkok. The topic of discussion: the similarities of their faiths.

Last weekend, Levine and Joy joined Father Joe and Vicha Poolvaraluck of Major Cineplex at a two-day charity camp and fair for hundreds of orphans of Bangkok's Mercy Camp. There were games, magicians, yogis and a mini-concert with Academy Fantasia superstars for the kids, who are being cared for by Father Joe's Human Development Foundation for abandoned, orphaned, abused and trafficked children.

Levine personally sponsors 24 orphans at the Human Development Foundation, covering all of their expenses.

Levine's compassion and spiritualism often astound his rivals, who have emerged bruised and beaten after tangling with his California Wow Xperience, which listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in 2005.

They face a hard-driving competitor who is determined to expand his fitness centres while controlling costs to maximise profitability for shareholders. Many detractors admit being struck by his upbeat attitude and lack of pretension.

Levine normally drives a van rather than his Bentley Continental GT. He wears jeans and a T-shirt. There are no gold rings on his fingers, just a watch on his wrist and what looks like a chunk of coal around his neck. (In reality, it is an uncut 60-carat diamond, worth possibly Bt16 million.)

Levine does, however, have a weakness for beautiful homes. His condo overlooking the Chao Phya is a stunner.

He describes his and Joy's new 4,100-square-metre beachfront home on a 10-rai of Natai Beach in Phuket as "James Bond meets Buddha", a sleek, spiritual retreat with a 315-square-metre gym, a meditation room, a cinema, two bowling lanes, two swimming pools and two golf holes.

It's the perfect place for Levine and Joy to chill out after a busy week, he with his fitness centres and she with her Zense of Joy spas in California Wow's Sukhumvit Soi 23 and Esplanade clubs.

But now it's back to business. Tooling around his new Esplanade club, Levine talks about pioneering the 24-hour-fitness concept in Thailand. He plans to keep his club in The Esplanade open round the clock on Fridays and Saturdays.

"There will be duelling deejays until 4am," he says, recalling the buzz that his California Fitness parties in Hong Kong created when he brought the fitness craze to Asia.

Hal Lipper

The Nation