New owners take on The Yoga Studio

New owners plan to increase revenues, student base by expanding class options

by Paul Schreiber

SBJ Reporter

pschreiber@sbj.net

The Yoga Studio at 3863 S. Campbell has been sold. New owners Winston and Anne Riley took the business over June 26 after purchasing it from Susan DeAngelo.

"We like yoga so much we bought the studio," Winston Riley said. He declined to provide a purchase price for the 6-year-old business. Enrollment is now between 60 and 75 students, he said, and in the past, enrollment has peaked as high as 125 students. Seven classes are offered weekly, taught by four instructors.

The couple has a one-year lease on the 900-square-foot studio with property owner KPAC Properties for $700 a month, Riley said.

Riley forecasts 2005 revenues of about $160,000 are feasible. There is also the possibility of adding tai chi and aerobics in the future, he said. "Anne and I are marketers, so I don't have any doubt in my mind that we will grow the business and will outgrow that space," he said.

The Yoga Studio is not the only business the Rileys are involved in. The couple also partners with Tom Martin in Ozark Alpacas, an alpaca-raising enterprise in New London, Riley said. The couple's atypical business venture was featured in Springfield Business Journal's March 11, 2002, issue.

The Rileys own the farm where about 60 alpacas are raised and bred, but Martin is responsible for its daily operations. The animals are indigenous to South America and raised primarily for breeding purposes and for the sale of their wool, Riley said. "We're still involved in the marketing, the sales and the breeding decisions," he said. "They're pricey little rascals, so that represents a pretty fair-sized business."

The Rileys' alpaca farm was originally operated in Strafford, but the couple sold that location in October 2003.

Winston Riley also operates Culinary Core Consulting, a food marketing company that works with food manufacturers and restaurants. Among his clients are Willow Brook Foods Inc., Panera Bread Company, Red Lobster and The Olive Garden.

DeAngelo's reason for selling the business was purely academic. She is off to her native New York to pursue her doctorate in psychology at either New York University or Columbia University.