Yahoo Finance Behind the brand: Dyaco UK, leading commercial gym equipment provider
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The day after Dean Jackson finished his final university exam in accounting, he started work in the fitness industry selling gym equipment. “I was a 21-year-old kid given the job of going round stores like John Lewis and JJB Sports and training the staff on how to sell the products,” he recalls.
It gave him solid grounding in the industry. So much so that Jackson continued his sales drive over an accounting career and, 20 years later, is now CEO of Dyaco UK, the leading gym provider which recently merged with sweatband.com. The deal reputedly makes Dyaco the only UK company that can supply the whole fitness market.
Jackson’s pedigree in the fitness market has been strengthened by his progression while working at global licensing firm RFE. Having started as UK sales manager, he moved up to CEO of the US division in Texas. Jackson took the Reebok and Adidas brands over to the US and grew the division to the tune of $20m over three years.
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After moving back to the UK with his family following Covid, Jackson was soon called by Dyaco in early 2021. At the time he was working as managing director of a US-based firm, which was holding ground on investing in warehousing or office space after navigating some “post-Covid pains”.
Jackson adds: “It was the year of my 40th birthday and not a time when I wanted to be slowing down but to take the next journey.”
He joined the Milton Keynes-based business the day after he turned 40. “The key thing for me when I was selling their products was that they offered much longer warranties,” he says. “There is no bigger badge of honour telling customers that this is a great product but also offering one of the biggest warranties in the market.”
Dyaco’s growth was aided when the Taipei-based trading company went public in 2016. It now has seven home and commercial brands under its wing, along with a license partner brand in UFC, the mixed martial arts sport. The deal with sweatband.com, primarily an online retailer, gives the brand a showroom location in London, along with the company’s knowledge of the e-commerce landscape.
“You have to look at your stores as a showroom,” says Jackson, “while we will probably be the only company that can deliver A-Z of your product needs in a commercial setting.”
Jackson now oversees a staff of over 50 in the retailer’s UK and Germany operations. He will hold quarterly meetings with every business, as well as visiting the company’s backend tech development team in Poland. “My most overused word is probably transparency,” he adds.
A keen rugby player with over 400 games under his belt, he admits to never being the best player on the teams he competed with, instead showing tactical and motivational awareness. He has taken on those qualities to the boardroom.
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In a competitive market, Dyaco seem well-placed with its sweatband.com acquisition. It follows a £5m turnover in 2021/2022 and sales rising to 33%. Dyaco is now on course for a £20m turnover this financial year.
So where are the fitness trends heading following a period where home equipment sales grew exponentially during Covid?
“People love the feeling after they finish working out,” says Jackson. “Sometimes people are looking for shortcuts and now you see new products being designed to get to that feeling quicker.
“We want to give the ability for consumers to have choice. Some days I might want to be told to pedal faster, but other days I might want to race against a friend on the other side of the country and race together.
“Or I might want to run through the streets of Sydney, or want to watch a TV series while I’m on the treadmill. The choice is what’s winning right now and people don’t want to be dictated to.”
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