Edwin “Eddie” Phillips, businessman and co-founder of health and beauty club chain Phillip Wain in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, has died of lung cancer at the age of 74.
His daughter, Natasha, announced the news on Wednesday, saying that Phillips died on March 14 at his home in Byron Bay, Australia.
Phillips, known for bringing aerobics to Asia, established the fitness chain with his business partner, Barry Wain, in the city in October 1977, before expanding to Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
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“He was a talented entrepreneur from a young age and was passionate about fitness and good health as he embraced a highly active sporting lifestyle. He was an intensely competitive judoka, involved in athletics and was ‘mad about surfing’,” Natasha said.
“My father always loved to attend any of my and my brother’s extracurricular activities whilst we were at school.”
Natasha also said she was heavily involved in drama productions, adding she had invited her father to the gala performance of the South Pacific play.
“Not knowing what a gala was, I had not told my dad it was a black-tie event. So he came and watched me perform dressed in his casual clothes, which he rocked all the same!” She recalled.
Phillips had two marriages. The first was with Deborah Sims, with whom he had two children – Natasha and Bogart, who currently live in Australia.
After splitting from Sims, Phillips married Kellie Bright in Australia and had a son named Jesse before divorcing again.
Born and raised in the Entrance, a small coastal town on the New South Wales Central Coast, Phillips started his career at a fitness centre in Sydney and later earned a certificate at the renowned Academy of Natural Healing.
In the 1970s, Phillips left Australia for Asia. He started with Thailand before “finding his fortune” in Hong Kong.
According to Natasha, he gained the nicknames of the “Fitness King of Hong Kong” and “Spa King” in Australia
His then wife, Sims, known as “the Fitness and Aerobics Queen of Hong Kong”, helped build the Phillip Wain brand for several years. She also used to represent the city as an Olympian swimmer.
In Australia, he set up a business empire with Camp Eden Health Retreat in Queensland and Temple of the Body and Soul in Sydney, with a portfolio of investments, including Kirra Beach Hotel in Queensland and the Pearl South Pacific Resort in Fiji.
He died in Byron Bay, an area he once described as “natural, undeveloped and has fabulous surfing”.
“I can touch base with nature in a physical and spiritual sense,” he said in an interview with the Post in 1998.
In addition to surfing, he told the Post in 1994 that he was also a keen swimmer who said he swam 70 laps in his 17-metre pool at his Bowen Road home every morning before breakfast.
Allan Zeman, chairman of the Hong Kong Lan Kwai Fong Group, said Phillips was “very popular” in the city’s social scene. Zeman also said he saw Phillips at the nightlife district he founded.
“He was always immaculately dressed and was always in good shape as he ran a gym,” Zeman said. “He used to cater to a lot of the wealthy people. At the time, it was the gym to be a member of in Hong Kong.”
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