Crunch Fitness has more than 500 gyms in 41 states, the District of Columbia and eight countries.
• The franchisee group’s portfolio of gyms grows to 36 after acquiring 13 locations in New York and New Jersey.
• Primetime CEO Kevin Laferriere said more acquisitions are coming for the CapitalSpring-backed operators.
With three key acquisitions this year, Primetime Fitness has taken its place among the largest operators in the Crunch Fitness system.
And the Troy, Michigan-based franchisee said it’s far from done expanding its Crunch portfolio beyond 36 gyms in six states. It has three locations under development and plans to sign seven more leases by the end of the year, said CEO Kevin Laferriere.
“We have some conversations going on about some opportunities that we’re really excited about that we can’t talk about right now. A lot going on here for sure,” Laferriere said.
It’s already been a productive year for Primetime Fitness with the acquisition of 13 Crunch locations in New York and New Jersey from Chris Pacifico's Carey Ave Development and Assaf Gal's AD Fitness.
These acquisitions followed the acquisition and development by Primetime Fitness of four Crunch gyms in Ohio and Michigan in May and 10 Crunch locations from Fitness Gurus in 2024.
With three dozen gyms, Nashville, Tennessee-based Primetime Fitness is among the 10 largest Crunch operators. CR Holdings, which is supported by North Castle Partners, is the largest in the system with more than 84 locations and plans to get to 100 gyms by 2026. The second largest is Meaningful Partners-backed Fitness Ventures, which operates about 60 locations with plans to open 15 more this year.
Headquartered in New York City where the brand got its start, Crunch has more than 500 gyms in 41 states, the District of Columbia and eight countries. The average unit volume for clubs open 1 to 2 years is just north of $3 million and the investment range is $918,000 to $3.7 million, depending on the size and location of the gym, according to the franchise disclosure document.
Laferriere said Primetime Fitness will retain the gyms’ staff members. He said its newly acquired clubs will receive a series of upgrades designed to enhance the member experience. Planned renovations include updated equipment, refreshed branding and signage, enhanced Relax & Recover zones and streamlined check-in experiences.
“These gyms were all performing well, but like any new locations we take on, we see opportunities to make them even better,” Laferriere said. “We always see room for improvements we can make.”
Primetime Fitness CEO Kevin Laferriere
Laferriere shared the five top-line revenue outcomes Primetime Fitness analyzes when exploring potential Crunch acquisitions. They include assessing their pipeline of sales leads, conversion and closing rates; membership revenue; ancillary revenue streams such as personal training and retail sales; the baseline staff skillset and training opportunities; and expense efficiency.
On assessing staff skillset and training opportunities, Laferriere said, “We believe skillset drives better member experience and helps communicate higher-value membership options. We look for opportunities to upgrade and refresh skillset where we can create better margin economies.”
Laferriere, who joined Primetime Fitness at the end of 2023, credited CapitalSpring's controlling stake in his company for making possible its expansion beyond nine Crunch gyms in Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee and into the New York Metropolitan market.
Wade Daniel, partner at CapitalSpring, said his firm is encouraged by the timeline Primetime Fitness has established in growing its portfolio of Crunch gyms.
“This is the team's third acquisition in the last 18 months or so and they've really done a great job building a platform that has the scale to where they’ve quadrupled the business size,” he said. “We're quite pleased with their pace and execution.”
