Ben Karoonkornsakul has never been one to stand still, her industry track record characterised by careful yet deliberate innovation and evolution.  

Opening her first boutique studio in Bangkok in 2003, before most people knew what ‘boutique fitness’ meant, she went on to launch a wellness retreat in 2008. She then introduced reformer Pilates to her boutiques in 2010 – when the discipline was almost unheard of in Southeast Asia – and debuted indoor cycling in 2015. And all the while, she grew her studio estate across Bangkok and beyond.  

Today, The Absolute Group founder oversees a multi-brand portfolio spanning Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong, with preparations underway to add new studio concepts, new programmes and a major global franchise partnership to the mix. She speaks exclusively with RIDE HIGH. 

Let’s start with an update on Absolute Boutique Fitness.

We’re still very much a boutique fitness operator, not a gym. However, after so many years in the market, it’s natural that we’ve developed strength in depth, with several specialisms now available under one roof. 

Across our 16 studios – nine in Bangkok, six in Singapore and one in Hong Kong – our core disciplines are still reformer Pilates, indoor cycling and yoga. But not every location needs everything: all 16 offer reformer Pilates, but otherwise the mix varies to reflect demand and supply in each catchment. 

Indoor cycling has been part of Absolute for 10 years and the market hasn’t disappeared. There’s still strong demand.

What we have seen over the last few years is a growing demand for personal training and strength work, so we’re about to launch a new group strength class. This will be our primary focus at Absolute over the next two years – a great complement to the stretching and yoga, reformer and feelgood cardio we already offer. 

We have no plans to further expand the Absolute offering at this stage, though. Once we’ve launched strength, we feel we’ll have everything we need: reformer Pilates, chair Pilates, tower Pilates, private sessions, indoor cycling, yoga, strength training and personal training. 

The challenge now isn’t adding more. It’s optimising the existing estate and its programming mix, deciding which studios should offer which combination of disciplines within their 4,000–12,000sq ft footprints. 

Tell us about your new brands.

Alongside Absolute Boutique Fitness, we’ve launched two new reformer-focused brands over the past couple of years. This is where our real growth will be over the next few years. 

The first is Pop Pilates, with three studios already open in Bangkok, one opening in July and plans to reach eight to 10 studios over the next year to 18 months. 

Absolute is perceived as a premium brand, even though it’s priced accessibly. The audience has also grown with us over the years and is more mature: typically 30–60+ years. 

There’s a balance to strike between brand history and credibility on the one side and innovation on the other

Pop Pilates targets a younger crowd, with décor that’s influenced by pop art and a price point that’s about 25–30 per cent cheaper than Absolute. You come in, take a class, there’s a small locker room and shower – that’s it. 

It has a smaller footprint – 1,500–2,000sq ft – which means we can take it into suburban locations. After COVID, we saw a huge shift towards neighbourhood living. People don’t necessarily commute to the city every day any more, so fitness, restaurants and other services are moving closer to where people live.  

Pop Pilates allows us to tap into this community market, as well as bringing younger audiences into our group who can then grow with us. 

And your other new brand?

The second brand is The Reformer Society, currently operating one studio in Singapore and one in Hong Kong, with a first Bangkok location due to open in June. Priced higher than Pop but lower than Absolute, this is another no-frills model. 

You’ll note we didn’t include Pilates in the brand name. That’s because the classes are really about strength training on the reformer. You see this a lot in the West now, with reformers used for bootcamp-style workouts rather than traditional Pilates. 

However, we were very careful with our concept. Even though the workout is intense and strength-focused, it’s still rooted in Pilates principles. You might do 30 reps instead of 10, so it burns more, but there’s discipline around proper alignment and the logic of our choreography to ensure safe, injury-free movement. 

We’ve also paid careful attention to the music, with the rhythms of the playlists specifically designed to match and support our choreography.  

You’re bringing AARMY to Asia.

Absolute Group is AARMY’s first global franchise partner – a collaboration we believe will be a win-win for both brands.  

Absolute is very well known in Southeast Asia, particularly in Bangkok and Singapore where we dominate the market – but we’re still largely perceived as a regional brand. Meanwhile, AARMY is a strong global brand with an engaged following in Western markets especially.  

Let me say now that this isn’t about growing Absolute beyond Southeast Asia; we’re happy to do what we do well in our core markets. It is about bringing a respected international brand into our ecosystem to further elevate our profile, particularly as a growing number of international brands and franchises enter Southeast Asia. 

We’re taking our time to find the perfect sites, but hope to launch ‘AARMY powered by Absolute’ in June or July

And we’ve worked with AARMY before: founder Akin Akman has visited a couple of times to guest instruct indoor cycling classes for our members, with 120 bikes on a rooftop overlooking Central Park Bangkok. These collaborations have gone really well, building a lot of trust between our two brands. 

Eventually, we started discussing the possibility of bringing AARMY’s bootcamp concept to Asia. The idea isn’t to open huge numbers of studios. Both sides are more interested in building a high-quality, premium presence. 

We’re taking our time to find the perfect sites, but hope to launch in both Bangkok and Singapore in June or July 2026. These will be standalone studios branded ‘AARMY powered by Absolute’. 

How will AARMY sit alongside your strength class?

Our Absolute strength class is designed more as a complement to yoga and Pilates: members might come once or twice a week to maintain strength and support longevity. 

AARMY is a bootcamp: more intense, more performance-driven, more competitive. Those in attendance often want to test themselves, pushing themselves to the max and looking to improve over time. 

So, while both involve strength, the mindset and training intensity are completely different. 

We therefore expect AARMY to broaden our audience. Traditionally, Absolute has attracted a lot of women, particularly in the Pilates space. AARMY will likely bring in more men and individuals who enjoy performance-driven training, similar to the crowd you see at events such as Hyrox. It’s about challenge and progression. 

Have you evolved your indoor cycling programmes?

Indoor cycling has been part of Absolute for 10 years now, so naturally we have to refresh it. 

The market hasn’t disappeared – there’s still strong demand for rhythm cycling – but the industry has matured. It isn’t the explosive trend it was when concepts such as SoulCycle first emerged. 

One challenge is that rhythm cycling lacks the obvious progression you see in disciplines such as Pilates or yoga, where you can gradually improve technique and complexity. After many years, regular riders start asking: ‘What’s next?’ 

Meanwhile, some riders stopped coming during COVID and found it intimidating to return, because classes had become quite advanced. Some people are only now coming back three years on and are quickly realising how much they missed it – but there remains an obstacle here for returners, as well as beginners. 

We felt the time had come to redesign our programme, creating clearer pathways and structured progression to improve accessibility for beginners and introduce new challenge for long-term riders. The result are four clearly defined indoor cycling formats that we launched in April. 

Our four new cycle formats improve accessibility for beginners and introduce new challenge for long-term riders

Rhythm45 is our classic rhythm cycling class, music-driven and focused on enjoyment. You come in after work, ride to the beat, have a great workout and leave feeling energised. It’s a great entry point, as well as providing stress release for regulars. 

Choreo45 emphasises choreography and upper-body movement and caters for beginners and intermediates. Many of our riders love this style, because it feels almost like a synchronised dance on the bike. 

Endurance45 is a performance-driven class focused on stamina and cardiovascular conditioning, targeting intermediate to advanced riders. 

Finally, Strength60 is a longer, performance-based ride with higher levels of resistance and a focus on upper- and lower-body strength. 

The framework for each programme features a series of structured sequences, allowing for variety in choreography while maintaining consistency of experience across instructors – all of whom exclusively instruct cycling for Absolute.

You’re launching an urban wellness concept.

An urban wellness and longevity club is something we’ve been discussing internally for many years. Wellness is the next big thing and, having launched our wellness retreat – Absolute Sanctuary – in Ko Samui 18 years ago, we have extensive experience and knowledge that we’re keen to harness.  

For a long time, we’ve felt there would be demand for a similar wellness and longevity concept in a city environment, albeit on a smaller scale. However, at times we’ve been almost too far ahead of the game with some of our innovations, so we held off. Now we feel the timing is right, so we’re aiming to launch a 15,000sq ft Absolute Wellness Club in Bangkok in November. 

At times we’ve been almost too far ahead of the game, but we do feel the time is right for an urban wellness and longevity club

The idea is a club centred around wellness, fitness, longevity and community. Fitness elements will include reformer classes, yoga and personal training, while a significant wellness offering will span hydrotherapy, infrared and traditional saunas, oxygen chambers, red light therapy and a recovery zone featuring ice baths, hot tubs and a large communal sauna. We’ll also offer some medical wellness services – such as IV drips and vitamin therapies – and a spa. 

The goal is to create a place where people can integrate wellness into their daily lives without having to travel to a retreat destination, although we will also embrace wellness tourism. 

Will you bring wellness into your other brands? 

Space is always a challenge in boutique studios: it would be difficult to add large recovery zones to existing locations. Plus, Absolute does already allow for active recovery within its mix of disciplines. 

What we’re exploring instead is how to integrate wellness into future Reformer Society studios, where the younger audience is already very interested in recovery. 

In this model, we can expect members to train hard one day and then come back the next day specifically for recovery: cold plunge, sauna, rest and regeneration. We’re looking at how we can make it a social group experience. 

For our more traditional Absolute Boutique Fitness clients, the full wellness club will probably be the better fit. 

How do you stay ahead of the market?

Quite simply, you never sit still. Just because you’ve been successful for decades, doesn’t guarantee you success next year. 

When reformer Pilates exploded after COVID, Absolute benefited because we’d been doing it for 15 years already. We were ready for the surge in demand. Now the market is catching up: many new studios have opened, some of them quite good, with lots of international franchises also entering the region. 

Loyalty no longer means always going to the same place. People can love you but still want variety.

So we have to keep evolving, elevating consumer perceptions still further: refreshing programmes, introducing new and differentiated concepts, maintaining our relevance.  

We’re fortunate to operate within the growing sector of fitness, but we have to recognise that people are now consuming it differently. As an operator, you can’t just have one brand or one experience any more. Loyalty no longer means always going to the same place: people can love you but still want variety. We’re looking to provide that within our group. 

Yet as we expand into new areas, we must also continue to refine what we already do well. There’s a delicate balance to strike between brand history, credibility and loyalty on the one hand and, on the other, innovating to ensure our brand doesn’t go stale. That’s what we’re working on right now – and what we will keep working on every day.