NutriFormance: Shaping Bodies and Minds

This week’s Business Buzz stopped in at the performance center in Le Chateau Village in Frontenac. Patch caught up with owner Dale Huff for a discussion about his business.

When was NutriFormance founded.

Dale Huff: March of 1997. This is our 15th year.

And have you expanded your space in that time.

Huff: All the time. Expand, contract, expand, contract, all sorts of things. We added the Athletic Republic component in 2009 and essentially we have two businesses under one roof now. It works very well from a cross referal standpoint. They are student athletes, and that’s pretty neat.

How many employees do you have fulltime, partime.

Huff: I would say upward and between 25 and 30 fulltime, and about the same parttime.

Lets talk about your mission statement. What are you trying to accomplish.

We consider anyone/everyone a real athlete. Our passion lies in enhancing someone’s personal performance, whether it is daily living or developing in any sport such as golf or tennis. But then also, the weight management side of things. We work from a strength to body weight ratio. That’s hugh in terms of getting up and down stairs; so we focus on the nutrition side of counseling as well. If someone walks out of here feeling better, then we feel like we’ve accomplished our goals.

In general terms, who do you think you serve.

Huff: Anyone interested in improving their health and performance. From an age of 7 on up. We have clients who are in their 90s who are trying to preserve as much capability as they can and we have athletes who are nine and ten years old who want to get more muscular and develop their coordination for sports.

What is your draw area.

Huff: Its funny on the fitness side, the Nutriformance side, we are probably a range of three to five miles. On the Athletic Republic side, we have kids who come from all over Missouri and Illinois. They came from as far as Cape Girardeau.

Athletic Republic, please elaborate.

Huff: It stands alone really well. We’ve done a good job of ironing out the seasonality. We deal with 5-6 core sports. Soccer is probably number one. But lacrosse, field hockey and volleyball are running close, plus football.

Have you ever thought about developing an outdoor type facility.

Huff: We are always pokng around and see what like-minded facilities around the country are doing. That is a growing trend. Some of the other Athletic Republics around the country are beginning to start their own sports associations. Like their own baseball clubs, but I don’t think we we’re interested in doing that, but we like to partner with clubs that want to improve their athletes and make their performances better.

We have nice square footage that is manageable, rather than having 20,000 square feet  that doesn’t get used all the time, and that makes it difficult to succeed. If we need to do combine athletic training, we will go out to a field somewhere nearby to do that.

Will the time ever come when schools will contract you for all their needs.

Huff: I’m not sure. Right now, they are trying to pull it all in house. We want schools to have strong in-house programs. We just want to compliment what they do. A lot of coaches see us as a competitor--and we’re not. Facilities like ours have been contracted to work for schools.

What is your biggest success story so far.

Huff: Probably Montee Ball, All-American runningback at Wisconsin. I think the only player out of Missouri to be nominated for a Heisman Trophy. We had Montee from his sophomore year on. We can take some credit in his success.

Hours of Operation:

Monday through Thursday, 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, closed at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sunday 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Phone: 314-432-6103.

Location, 10407 Clayton Rd. in Le Chateu Village.