Bachelor star Sam Wood sells fitness business for $71million

Former Bachelor Sam Wood has sold his fitness program, 28 by Sam Wood, for a whopping $71million.

The Melbourne-based personal trainer and entrepreneur, 41, sold the program to myDNA, which provides customers with personalised fitness and health plans based on an analysis of their DNA results.

‘I am so proud of what we have achieved so far and even more excited about what the future with myDNA holds,’ Wood told news.com.au.

Under the deal, Wood will become an investor in myDNA, holding a five per cent stake. 

Since launching 28 by Sam Wood in 2016, the program has attracted more than 400,000 individual users and partnered up with the likes of Woolworths and Blackmores vitamins.

Thanks to the myDNA deal, Wood plans to ‘supercharge growth [and] add incredible new tech features and personalisation’ to the program and app. 

‘I think that’s why we’ve had the success that we’ve had, and myDNA, what they have that we find really attractive is that extra level of personalisation through genomics,’ he told the Australian Financial Review.

Dennis Bastas, chairman of myDNA, told AFR that 28 by Sam Wood’s custom-designed app and website was a big factor in the $71million deal.

‘Sam’s got a great following, and the platform itself is a beautiful user experience, which to be honest, from the myDNA perspective, the attractiveness in acquiring his business was all people that went along with it,’ Bastas said.

Wood made headlines earlier this year when he uploaded side-by-side photos of himself, showing how he went from having a ‘dad bod’ to looking like a bodybuilder in two months.

The father of four explained he’d gained weight in the lead-up to the Christmas holidays and decided to follow his own 28 by Sam Wood program to get back in shape.

Online trolls were quick to accuse Wood of deliberately making himself appear bigger in the ‘before’ photo by ‘pushing out his stomach’ and hunching his back.

Addressing the backlash in an Instagram video days later, Wood said: ‘To the sceptics and the haters, it’s all good I get it.

‘The photo on the left is me and it was taken in the last week of August last year. I’m not sticking my guts out. They were just out and my posture was many of things suffering.

‘I’m not sharing this as marketing ploy. I’m sharing it to show that I’m real and was struggling like so many others as so many assume that as a fitness guy I’m always in good shape.’

The former reality star admitted he was nervous about posting such an unflattering image of himself, but knew it had to be done.

‘It was scary and confronting to share a picture that I hate looking at but once it’s out there, it’s actually incredibly empowering and liberating. This is me. This is real,’ he said.

In the caption of his body transformation post, Wood revealed he’d decided to embark upon his own eight-week challenge on September 1. 

‘I made a decision and I went for it and I cannot believe how much better I feel. Forget how I look. It’s how I feel,’ he wrote.

‘[The benefits include] More energy, better mood, more confidence, sleeping better, more productive.’

Wood said the eight-week challenge helped him get out of a rut.

‘I’m feeling better mentally and physically in every way. I needed a circuit breaker. I needed to get out of a rut,’ he explained.

The 28 by Sam Wood program includes fun and challenging workouts, as well as recipes and meal plans to help people get back into shape.

Back in 2018, Wood invested $1million into the 28 by Sam Wood program to make it a bigger contender in the fitness space. 

The fitness mogul is married to Snezana Wood (née Markoski), whom he met on the third season of The Bachelor in 2015.

The reality TV couple, who have been married for four years, welcomed their third daughter together, Harper Jones, on May 4.

They are also parents to Charlie, two, and Willow, three.

Wood is stepfather to 16-year-old Eve, Snezana’s daughter from a previous marriage.

Since finding fame on The Bachelor, Wood has built a fortune estimated to be close to $10million, largely from a series of shrewd property investments in central Melbourne and regional Victoria.

The businessman, who drives a $150,000 Mercedes G-Wagon, has built a property portfolio which includes his $4million home in Elsternwick and a $3.6million holiday home in Mt Martha. 

The solid brick Victorian residence in the desirable suburb of Elsternwick was bought in September 2018 for $3.3million and features a whopping nine rooms in total, including four double bedrooms and ‘an expansive living area with alfresco dining’.

An hour away in picturesque Mt Martha, the Wood family has invested in a perfect holiday getaway on 2,440 square metres of land.

Wood bought the property in October 2020 for $2.7million and already it has risen in value to a staggering $3.6million – a nearly million dollar profit in just 15 months.

The Bay Road property is only a few minutes’ walk from Mt Martha Village Shops and the South Beach Yacht Club, making it a prized acquisition to any property portfolio.

The four-bedroom house is an entertainer’s dream featuring a large family room, spacious lounge and dining room with gas log fire and well-appointed kitchen.

Wood made his entry into the property market in 2014 when he purchased a two-bedroom, 1,728 square metre unit on Carnegie’s Koornang Road for $477,500.

That property has now jumped in value to close to $600,000.

And he’s had the Midas touch since. In 2017, Wood bought a three-bedroom investment property in Broadford for $295,000 and since then has watched it jump in value to nearly $500,000.

In 2018, at about the time Wood acquired the Elsternwick property, he also sunk $531,000 into another investment property in Upwey.

This, like all his other properties, has continued to surge in value making Wood the undisputed financial king of the Bachelor franchise.