Wayflyer funded Apollo Fitness's stock through the global container price spike

Apollo Fitness is an Irish gym equipment supplier founded by brothers Ross and Ricky Quinlan. Six years on, the company sells commercial gym equipment to gym chains, hotels and leisure centers, mainly in Ireland, and still turns over multiple millions every year. Ross, co-founder and director, talked us through how the business got through the supply chain crisis and what came next.

Apollo Fitness started out supplying commercial gyms. When COVID hit, the team pivoted to home customers as demand for gym equipment exploded. Orders went from a trickle to hundreds almost overnight.

Demand was never the problem. Supply was. Factories in the Far East couldn't keep up, and they wanted money up front.

We were looking to front-load a lot of cash and we were like, this is unsustainable, because we needed to keep a company running on top of wages and rents.

Paying factories and freight for big sums, then waiting around six months to sell the product, was more than the business could carry on its own. In early 2021, Ross started looking at financing options.

During the pandemic Apollo Fitness mostly funded itself, with some help from its national bank. But stock financing was hard to get there. Banks lean toward asset-based lending, and the process took a lot of work.

Equity wasn't an option Ross wanted either.

As for equity, I like to stay in control of my company.

He came across Wayflyer on LinkedIn, spoke to the team, and took his first financing in March 2021.

The first financing paid for containers at sea and kept stock moving. Having cash ready to pay suppliers meant stock reached Apollo Fitness faster.

Then the price of shipping went through the roof.

You needed stock, but containers were costing $20,000 to get to Europe. You get five containers, it's $100,000. It was crazy stuff.

Ross also made a careful call that protected the business. While some suppliers he met at trade shows ordered 20 containers at a time and were left with 15 unsold after COVID, Apollo Fitness bought one container at a time.

We would order container by container.

Wayflyer financing sat behind each order. It paid for stock without draining the cash the company needed for everyday costs. When Apollo Fitness needs more, the process is quick.

Send it over and we're in action two or three days later. It's just very smooth and easy.

Apollo Fitness has now taken more than €1 million in financing from Wayflyer since that first deal. With stock on shelves and cash flowing, the brand moved from selling to homes back into commercial gyms, hotels and leisure centers. It has grown every year since.

Last year was its most profitable yet. As container prices came down, profits hit record levels, at a time when many businesses found life after COVID hard.

Ross has his eyes on what's next. Apollo Fitness plans to keep growing, hold profitability high, and push harder into the UK and Europe. Brexit and customs have made selling into the UK harder, but the team wants to rebuild that business. A further round of financing for growth may follow.

Interested in following in Apollo Fitness's footsteps? Wayflyer has funded over 6,000 businesses worldwide with $6 billion worth of working capital, backed by world-leading financial institutions. Apply in minutes and access funds in hours. Start your application today.