Crunch Fitness, among the larger high-value, low-price gym franchises, expects to open more than 90 locations this year.
The second largest Crunch franchisee is harnessing the power of the brand and making its own intensive membership push as it seeks dominance in the high-value, low-price gym segment. "We really hit the ground running from the start and have never looked back," said the group's CEO.
The core values Fitness Ventures posts on its website use inspiring language you’d expect from a successful gym operator that values the team approach and prioritizes winning with organic growth: “Embrace the adventure,” “Play to win but win together,” “Climb the right mountain,” “No bullshit” and “Don’t #@!% the customer.”
It is the company’s opening core value with the heading “Warrior spirit” that probably best defines Fitness Ventures and its rapid climb in the Crunch Fitness system, said CEO Brian Hibbard.
“We have a great team that is made up of entrepreneurs who possess the warrior spirit,” Hibbard said. “We set high goals for ourselves and don’t run away from the challenges. It might all sound cliché, but it’s the truth.”
Founded in 2016 and acquired by private equity firm Meaningful Partners last year, Orlando, Florida-based Fitness Ventures is the second largest franchisee in the Crunch system behind CR Fitness Holdings, which is backed by North Castle Partners. Hibbard’s company is one of the fastest-growing Crunch franchisees and is among the gym chain’s top-performing operators.
Brian Hibbard is the CEO of Fitness Ventures, a large Crunch franchisee.
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Meaningful Partners bought Fitness Ventures from Prospect Hill Growth Partners. In the announcement of the transaction, Amin Maredia, co-founder of Meaningful Partners, said Crunch “provides one of the most relevant sets of offerings at deep value, meeting a long-term consumer theme of quality at value.”
The three membership tiers for Crunch are Base, Peak and Peak Results, and prices vary by market, though the standard single club access base membership is $9.99. Peak and Peak Results memberships, which include group fitness classes and access to more than 500 clubs, are typically around $27 to $36.
Fitness Ventures has 57 gyms across 29 states with about a dozen more locations expected to open by the end of the year. It employs about 5,000 people and boasts unit volumes 40 percent above the system average of $2.2 million, Hibbard said. Its best gyms generate sales of more than $5 million. Hibbard declined to divulge his company’s overall revenue.
The speed at which Fitness Ventures is building new gyms in communities smaller than many of its competitors is just as impressive as its sales, which are being driven largely by a growing membership model. Last year, Fitness Ventures opened gyms in Erie, Pennsylvania; St. Cloud, Minnesota, and Yuma, Arizona, among other markets with population centers of fewer than 100,000.
“We look for real estate opportunities in secondary, tertiary markets because we’d rather be a big fish in a small pond where we are less likely to compete directly with others,” said Hibbard. “It’s worked out well because we own a lot territory now that our competitors don’t.”
A typical Crunch gym takes up between 10,000 and 45,000 square feet and features a range of equipment.
The company opened 44 gyms since 2020, including a record 12 last year. It’s aiming to open between 15 and 20 new gyms each year moving forward, said Hibbard, who pointed out only four of their 40,000- to 50,000-square-foot units have come through acquisitions. The rest were constructed primarily in former big box retail spaces.
“When I started with the company in 2019 we had seven locations and now we have 57,” said Hiba Abduljawad, the chief marketing officer. “We’re a totally different company now, but at the same time we’re the same company in how we attack the business, communicate with each other and market ourselves. A lot of that is because of Brian and how he runs our company. He has always led the same way. He does not micromanage. He allows each of us to do what we do best and to spread our wings, so to speak.”
Hibbard, a certified public accountant who served as a tax accountant to a number of large and growing companies, possesses that rare but invaluable combination of financial management skills and health and fitness business expertise. Prior to founding Fitness Ventures, he served as president and founder of South Beach Tanning Company, overseeing the development of the original prototype to the operation of a multimillion-dollar company with approximately 50 locations in nine states.
A fitness enthusiast himself, Hibbard serves on the Crunch franchise marketing committee, where he advises on the use, allocation and deployment of the national marketing and advertising fund. He also serves on the Crunch Franchise Advisory committee, where his member pricing model has been adopted by other gyms in the system.
Fitness Ventures operates several Crunch gyms in Tennessee, including this one in Murfreesboro, which it opened in 2021 at the site of a former Kmart department store.
Fitness Ventures’ confident leader said a key to his company’s success has been understanding the demand for high-value, low-priced gyms that offer a variety of equipment and classes for all levels and modern amenities. He also credited his company’s ability to quickly adjust gym configurations to the latest fitness trends, which he noted have shifted lately from cardio to strength training.
The rapid development within Fitness Ventures comes as Hibbard leverages the long-standing relationships he nurtured with investment partners prior to founding Fitness Ventures. On the franchisor front, Crunch Fitness is entering its own new expansion phase after TPG Growth sold it to fellow PE firm Leonard Green & Partners in April.
“Our stated goal back in 2020 was to get to 100 locations and a million members. That’s coming faster than probably we thought. We’ve got well over 500,000 members now so we’re a little more than halfway to that goal,” said Hibbard. “But there is not one person here, including myself, who doesn’t believe we will get there.”
“The key for us was driving the numbers like nobody’s business and being really selective with our first locations and then doing everything we could do to make sure those gyms were going to be successful,” Hibbard continued. “We really hit the ground running from the start and have never looked back.”
The other thing that is helping drive Fitness Ventures’ rapid growth is the brand’s overall success. Founded in 1989 in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Crunch has grown from a single gym with a unique “No Judgments” philosophy into one of the fastest-growing fitness brands in the world with more than 500 gyms. It added more than 2.1 million members since 2019, a 176 percent increase.
Crunch CEO Jim Rowley said more than 90 locations are set to open this year with the new Crunch 3.0 design. This latest prototype, revealed in January, features redesigned front desk, reception and lobby areas, expanded training and group fitness spaces, more strength equipment, and a dedicated recovery studio.
“Crunch has gone through some leadership changes since we started but I got to tell you they’ve all been great,” Hibbard said. “They’ve allowed us room to do some things with our gyms and been very supportive. Meaningful Partners has a great, great analytics team that spots trends in real estate and in the health fitness industry and we plan to take full advantage of that.”