Five Minutes With.. Benny Parihar, Managing Partner, CRYO Health

What is cryotherapy and what are the benefits?

Modern ‘Whole Body Cryotherapy’ (WBC) has a long-standing history, which began in 1978 in Japan, when Dr.Yamaguchi started using freezing treatments of short duration on his rheumatoid arthritis patients’ skin surface for pain management purposes. He concluded that rapid short-term freezing of the skin’s surface led to the immediate release of endorphins and is more effective than gradual cooling in an ice bath. Further research conducted over the last 2 decades in Europe has established WBC as a powerful treatment for inflammatory disorders and injury.

We offer Whole Body Cryotherapy (WBC) and Local Cryotherapy (facial treatments, localised treatments to specific areas like ankles, and joints). The treatment has many benefits that include weight loss, anti-ageing and muscle recovery.

Why did you decide to bring cryotherapy to the region?

We have been invested in the health, wellness and beauty sectors in the Middle East since the mid 80’s and saw the rapid growth of non-invasive/holistic treatments in North America and Europe. Cryotherapy is the fastest growing beauty and recovery application in a wellness market that will reach $265 billion worldwide by the end of 2017. This was the base for starting CRYO Health over a year ago and the success is terrific. CRYO Health specialises in cryotherapy and has packaged itself well as a lifestyle offering for its clients. Also, low-temperature therapy in the desert heat seemed to be an inevitable eventuality.

The increased demand to have the most cutting edge technology to develop young athletes in the region has seen even the Crown Prince of Dubai install a cryotherapy chamber at his home. Some of the largest global sporting events take place in the Middle East ranging from polo to tennis and not to mention the upcoming Qatar World Cup. Top athletes in these fields use cryotherapy religiously and now the general public is demanding these standards.

How difficult is it to compete in the Dubai health and wellness scene?

It’s a rapidly growing industry, with the influx of cosmopolitan, health conscious people moving to Dubai over the past decade. Dubai has become home to some of the most advanced medical and sport science facilities in the world. But we have managed to bring a team of specialists from all continents, that help us keep our finger on the pulse of technology when it comes to new age treatments. Non-invasive, holistic treatments are the future of health and wellness.

We have also gained the trust of the Dubai health and wellness scene. From chiropractors, to physiotherapists, to skin care experts and fitness centres, they understand our services play a key role in the market and often recommend their clients to use cryotherapy. Our presence has rapidly been recognised through the media and events. Educating the general public has increased our competitiveness.

How much of an appetite do you think there is for this type of specialist treatment across the region and do you have any sales/customer targets?

The response to the CRYO Health treatments has been phenomenal. With the growth and diversification of health and fitness, we are growing with it. Cryotherapy has now become part of many athletes’ disciplines from the UAE, whether it is horseracing, football, cross-fit or fitness championships and each of our clinics is targeting 600 treatments a month. We also have a steady demand for in-house installations for people who want to have access to their own CRYO chamber as much as needed. Our service company has a full team just dedicated to private installations.

How are you planning to expand the business?

We have already started the expansion of the CRYO Health concept by opening a second location in Jumeirah, at Dubai Ladies Club. The sole purpose was to be able to cater to our growing female clientele, and the branch is now fully operational. Our first franchised location is to open in the first quarter of 2015 in Beirut, Lebanon. Several centres around the Middle East are planned for 2015 and we are looking for strong partners to grow internationally.

We very quickly found ourselves setting up numerous cryotherapy chambers for private and commercial use all across the UAE. In the past year we have diversified our product range and now distribute multiple brands of cryo chambers, and have also added to the portfolio cryogenic freezers for blood banks, liquefied gas tanks, piping products and other cryogenic specific products.

Our business is reliant on liquefied gases, very quickly we learnt that with the growth of cryotherapy we needed to setup a services company “CRYO Services”, which specialises in engineering cryogenic applications and servicing them. The company trades and transports liquid nitrogen, liquid oxygen, dry ice, and other industry specific gas requirements.

Historically in the region, the gas manufacturers were distributing gas directly to the end user and servicing different clients/industries, with no real industry specific specialisation. We pride ourselves in small consumption/micro bulk servicing for healthcare and industrial clients who are using advanced medical and industrial setups for an array of businesses. We are targeting, stem cell research projects, blood banks, food logistics, oil and gas, automotive and construction.

Will you be hiring this year?

We are hiring in four different divisions: hospitality, sales, engineering and logistics. We are looking to double the number of team members in all divisions in 2015.

Define success in five words

Perseverance, hard work, happiness, knowledge and freedom.

In my spare time I like to…

Travel, research, cook, cycle, skydive and summit mountains!