In the public relations space, some are built with a natural passion or skill-set for the work, much like you’d say someone is a natural “go-getter” or “people person.” Nicole Dunn, CEO of Dunn Pellier Media, is all of the above.

Dunn Pellier Media has worked with top brands such as F45 Training, Les Mills, Orangetheory Fitness, and Club Pilates, establishing itself as one of the top public relations firms in fitness. But while Dunn has always had the personal tools to build a top agency, getting to this point still took determination and savvy, especially in her early days coming from another industry.

Grinding to the Top

Before starting Dunn Pellier Media, Dunn spent 14 years working in television, at one point helping to produce a Dr. Phil spin-off series called “Decision House.” She led a 50+ member team, overseeing all aspects of production from talent and guest bookings to writing scripts.

“The demands were intense, often stretching into 16-hour workdays,” Dunn recalled. “Amidst the competitive landscape, particularly dominated by men, I started to question what I was doing and how hard I worked for someone else.”

That questioning eventually led her to create Dunn Pellier Media. After receiving guidance from a business coach and an all-female “mastermind” group in Los Angeles, she went on to launch the PR agency. 

“Initially, I was hesitant to leave television, but I realized that with the versatility of my skill set in producing television and the potential for crossover into public relations, that it would work,” she said. “Encouraged by my mastermind group and my husband’s collective wisdom, I leaped.”

Amid that leap, she had an inspiring and helpful partner beside her in Tony Horton. The P90X star became one of Dunn’s first clients and was instrumental in helping her interest in fitness blossom into a true passion. 

“Witnessing the profound personal transformations sparked by his workouts ignited a fire within me,” said Dunn. “In our early days, Tony challenged me to reevaluate my fitness regimen, bluntly dismissing that my ‘daily dog walks’ just didn’t make the fitness cut. His insistence and encouragement to create a workout routine was a pivotal moment that marked a profound shift in my lifestyle and my future career.”

As their partnership grew, potential clients started flocking to Dunn Pellier Media, hoping to replicate the success enjoyed by Horton. From there, a thriving business unfolded, eventually growing to expand its portfolio beyond personalities and feature a wider spectrum of health and wellness organizations. 

Separation from the Pack

Besides its impressive client list, Dunn Pellier Media also distinguished itself from multiple competitors in the public relations arena. Working to be a “dedicated health partner” rather than just manning the PR department for its clients, DPM crafts and molds wellness narratives with impactful storytelling. 

The agency’s extensive experience and notable relationships across the industry also make a difference. Along with industry giants like Orangetheory and Club Pilates, Dunn Pellier Media also works with Bulldog Yoga, MyNetDiary and Essentia Mattress. 

“We have deep-rooted relationships with both the media and the wellness marketplace,” said Dunn. “For 17 years we have attended almost all fitness, wellness, and biohacking conferences to meet our community and make ourselves a part of this community.”

Those relationship-building skills trickle down from the top. 

“One of my greatest strengths lies in my ability to connect with people — a trait that has been evident since childhood, as my father often noted my natural gift for conversation,” Dunn said. “I’ve always been genuinely intrigued by people, eager to find out what drives them while learning about their passions. This innate curiosity serves as a significant advantage for our company, as it enables me to forge meaningful connections and foster growth opportunities in the fitness and wellness space.”

Additionally, Dunn Pellier Media’s specific focus on public relations in the health and wellness sector helps differentiate it from the pack. Few, if any, other companies stand so equipped on both the fitness and PR front. 

“What sets us apart is our genuine integration within the wellness community, a distinction few firms can claim,” said Dunn. “We’ve cultivated deep-rooted relationships and solid expertise in promoting fitness, health, and wellness brands.”

The Future of DPM & More 

Dunn sees merging Dunn Pellier Media with a prominent PR firm in need of DPM’s distinct health and wellness expertise as something to strive for in the long term future. 

“By joining forces with a much larger firm, we aim to bring our unique perspective and specialized knowledge to a broader audience, further solidifying our position as leaders in wellness-focused public relations,” she said. “Together, we can amplify our impact and offer clients a comprehensive suite of services that seamlessly blend expertise, community, and authenticity.”

However, a more immediate goal involves combating gender discrimination in health and wellness. In the current calendar year, Dunn mentioned an intent to address the disparity in funding for research into women’s health. 

With help from the Goldman Sachs 10K Small Business Program, from which Dunn recently graduated, she plans to launch an online platform that will fill the gap in research and data for women aged 45 years and older. The project is still in its development phase, as Dunn noted she’s currently preparing a pitch deck to engage leading female funders invested in women’s health to have them help support the platform. 

“We can’t improve what we don’t measure, and this platform brings the data and research together for better health outcomes and reducing the cost of disease for women,” Dunn said. “We have been left out of critical health and wellness research studies and that needs to change!”

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Club Pilates, the wildly successful Xponential Fitness-owned brand, has hit a new record with the opening of its 1,000th location, in Portland, Oregon, underscoring Pilates’ position as one of the most in-demand fitness modalities.

On Xponential’s recent earnings call with investors, executives noted that Club Pilates experienced the strongest license sales in 2023 (361), followed by StretchLab (159) and BFT (149). 

“From 30 open locations in 2015 to opening the 1,000th nine years later, this milestone is a true testament to the incredible growth the brand has experienced and the impact Club Pilates has in the lives of our members and communities across the globe,” said Mike Gray, president of Club Pilates, which has a presence in 12 countries.

Prior to Gray leading Club Pilates, Shaun Grove helped catapult the brand to worldwide recognition alongside Xponential founder and CEO Anthony Geisler until Grove’s departure in 2021 to become president of Rumble Boxing, another Xponential brand.

In honor of its continued success, Club Pilates nationwide will host Millennia parties with members and staff to mark the milestone while also celebrating individual studio achievements.

“We’re thrilled to celebrate this moment with Club Pilates Grant Park, (Portland) which is particularly serendipitous, as the franchise owners are one of our earliest franchise groups, opening their first studio in 2013, and have partnered with us extensively to become our second largest franchise group in the Club Pilates System,” Gray said.

“This celebration would not be possible without the inspiring dedication of our franchise partners, studio teams and corporate team alongside our proven business model, which has helped continue to propel our growth forward and change lives,” he added.

Keely Watson, franchise owner of Club Pilates, Grant Park, emphasized the pivotal moment for the low-impact Reformer-based fitness brand.

“It’s been an incredible journey over the last ten years since we opened our first studio, which was the 13th location for Club Pilates,” Watson said. “Seeing the brand grow and bringing Pilates to so many people worldwide has been truly inspiring. We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity to make Pilates accessible for our members and provide our staff with chances to grow in the industry across our 30 locations in two states.”

Watson added that the plan moving forward is to bring Pilates to even more communities, confirming that her group alone has 45 additional studios currently in development.

A hit in both urban and regional areas, the Pilates brand has opened in nearly 50 states in the U.S. and has been growing internationally with a master franchise agreement in France. Additional agreements are in development in Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Qatar, New Zealand and Switzerland.

In addition to its success on land, the popular fitness modality has also made its way to the high seas as part of a partnership between Xponential Fitness and Princess Cruises, dubbed ‘Club Pilates at Sea.’ One upcoming adventure sets sail this August for a weeklong scenic cruise in Alaska, offering a full range of Club Pilates classes led by top instructors.

Fitness entrepreneur Allison Beardsley, founder of Club Pilates, has since moved on to launching Red Light Method, a boutique fitness experience that combines red light therapy with exercise. 

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TRX Training celebrated its 20-year anniversary by making history, hosting the largest suspension training class ever recorded and setting a new Guinness World Records mark.

The event took place during TRX’s International Training Summit at the 2004 Summer Olympics grounds in Athens, Greece. A group of 422 participants came together to celebrate this milestone in the world of functional training. 

“The size of this record-breaking suspension training class in Athens demonstrates TRX’s global leadership in functional training,” said TRX CEO, Jack Daly. “TRX has been the most versatile piece of exercise equipment available since US Navy SEAL Randy Hetrick brought it to market 20 years ago.”

The TRX Training Summit, held in collaboration with one of Greece’s top fitness groups, Alterlife, attracted over 600 attendees, making it the largest summit in TRX’s two-decade history. Fitness instructors, coaches, and enthusiasts from around the world congregated at the Olympic basketball arena for two days of immersive training and coaching sessions aimed at inspiring the next generation of TRX Trainers.

The Guinness World Records title is a signal that TRX is committed to continued global expansion.

TRX has had an eventful past year, launching new products in partnerships with top fitness brands. The company created custom suspension trainers in collaboration with Xponential Fitness brands YogaSix and Club Pilates as well as Orangetheory Fitness.

Last year, TRX acquired YBell Fitness, which makes a kettlebell-dumbbell combination product, and signed a multi-year lease in Delray Beach for a 12,000-square-foot property, moving its global headquarters to Florida from San Francisco. The move was part of the brand’s strategic shift after its acquisition by Daly, which also saw Hetrick return to the company he founded as its chairman.

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Xponential Fitness, the boutique fitness and wellness franchisor overseeing ten brands, opened an average of one and a half new studios each day in 2023 — a feat founder and CEO Anthony Geisler said can continue this year on Thursday’s earnings call with investors.

The leading health and wellness franchisor grew its full-year 2023 revenue by 30% to $318.7 million and grew its Q4 2023 revenue by 27% to $90.2 million, reporting strong growth despite a net loss of $9.1 million in Q4, resulting from restructuring costs from company-owned transition studios, lower overall profitability and an increase in impairment of goodwill and other assets.

“In 2023, we experienced substantial growth on both the top and bottom lines as members continued to demonstrate that they prioritize their health and wellness routines,” Geisler said. “We further streamlined our business and are operating from a position of strength as we leverage our operations.”

Xponential also increased its North America system-wide sales by 36% to $1.40 billion, sold 805 franchise licenses and opened 557 new studios in 2023. Total members in North America grew 21% year-over-year in 2023 to 717,000, while visitation rates increased 31% to 51.5 million studio visits last year. 

“We see this momentum carrying into 2024 and are confident that our optimized portfolio of global brands will deliver considerable margin expansion and operational cash flows.”

Looking ahead to full year 2024, Xponential expects 550 new studio openings and an 8% growth in revenue. 

The Lindora Effect

Lindora, Xponential’s most recent acquisition that signals its push into the GLP-1 and wellness space, took center stage on Thursday’s earnings call.

Based on preliminary findings, Geisler noted that the company sees the greatest similarities between Lindora member profiles and those of Club Pilates and StretchLab, alluding to two of Xponential’s most popular and successful brands. He also indicated that apparel may be added to Lindora’s retail mix and sees the metabolic health brand as a lucrative addition. 

“Given that the average member in Lindora spends more than the average member in our fitness brands, there’s … more wallet share there than the fitness product,” Geisler said. “People that have shown up at Lindora have tried typically some version of weight loss, whether that be diet and exercise or both in the past and so when they come to Lindora, they’re willing to spend whatever they need to spend to get the ultimate result.”

Earlier this month, Xponential sold its treadmill-based interval fitness brand Stride Fitness, which represented less than 1% of its total studios open at the close of 2023.

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Xponential Fitness, having recently acquired Lindora metabolic health clinics in a push into the weight loss medication sector, has completed the divestiture of its treadmill-based interval training Stride Fitness brand to Stride Fitness Franchising, Inc., owned by Shaun Grove, president of Rumble Boxing.

In an email sent to franchise partners Thursday morning, Xponential president Sarah Luna confirmed that Stride Fitness is transitioning from the Xponential portfolio to a “private new owner” effective today.

Luna wrote that the decision to divest Stride from Xponential was “thoughtfully considered” as the boutique fitness and wellness franchisor “weighed the needs of the brand.”

She also gave assurances that Stride will be in the hands of an “incredibly qualified and capable leader” and closed the email writing that further updates would be shared with the Stride Fitness team and their franchisees directly. Xponential will provide “transition support” to the new owner.

The move sees Grove depart as president of Rumble Boxing. Grove served as president of Club Pilates before that and has been with Xponential since the brand’s founding in 2017.

The boutique franchisor has kicked off a search for Grove’s successor but confirms the Rumble Boxing president has agreed to remain in his role until a successor is found.

“We continuously evaluate our portfolio of brands to ensure profitable growth, optimize global customer experiences, and drive long-term value creation for our stakeholders,” said Anthony Geisler, founder and CEO of Xponential Fitness. “We are pleased to transition the Stride brand to an operator with almost a decade of experience owning and operating franchises prior to joining Xponential. After considering the potential alternatives for Stride, we concluded that this transaction was the best option for Xponential and the Stride brand.”

Xponential noted that as of Dec. 31, 2023, its Stride Fitness locations represented less than 1% of its total studios open and that the divestiture isn’t expected to materially impact revenue in 2024. 

This is a developing story and may be updated with additional information.

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YogaSix, an Xponential Fitness-backed boutique yoga franchise, has opened its 200th studio, in San Jose, California, following recent openings in Waterford Lakes, Florida and Minnetonka, Minnesota.

The franchise just grabbed the #1 category for yoga on Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 list — a testament to the YogaSix brand as well as the popularity of the holistic fitness and wellness modality in general, which was 2023’s second most popular exercise class based on average monthly search volume.

YogaSix features heated and non-heated yoga classes, boot camp-style fitness classes and meditation, providing an accessible, modern approach to the ancient practice. 

“Reaching our 200th studio is a testament to the incredible growth and impact YogaSix has had on people seeking mind-body wellness, and we are thrilled to celebrate this milestone in Sunnyvale, a community that shares our passion for well-being,” said Lindsay Junk, president of YogaSix. “We remain dedicated to creating spaces where everyone can discover the numerous benefits of yoga and embrace a balanced and fulfilling lifestyle.”

Asia and Hector Plahar, co-owners of YogaSix Sunnyvale, stated that they are thrilled to be the 200th studio within the franchise and indicated plans to expand.

“We have been part of YogaSix for a few years now and are elated at the opportunity to act on YogaSix’s mission to provide the mind-body experience of yoga to our community in and around Sunnyvale,” the Plahars said. “With a few more studios in the works, we look forward to leveraging the extensive support we receive from the YogaSix and Xponential Corporate Team as we begin offering a space where individuals can embark on their wellness journeys, fostering a sense of balance, joy and fulfillment through the practice of yoga.”

Going International

Although YogaSix’s 200th location is in California, the brand is set to expand overseas. Along with Pure Barre, YogaSix will have a presence in Japan following a master franchise agreement with Osaka-based Sunpark Co. Ltd., a StretchLab master franchisee and franchisor of restaurants, entertainment concepts and fitness centers.

The yoga franchise will also grow in Germany, with Xponential signing an international agreement for YogaSix with their existing master franchisee of Club Pilates in Germany. 

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As fitness and wellness continue to rack up consumer interest and spending, several franchises have made Entrepreneur’s 2024 Franchise 500 Ranking list, with Crunch Fitness taking the top spot among fitness brands and several Xponential Fitness brands also securing a place. 

Aside from flexing the power of the health and fitness franchise industry, Entrepreneur’s list reveals the strength of the franchise system and the lure of franchising as a lucrative business model for both budding and established entrepreneurs. 

The publication then evaluated the franchisors based on associated costs and fees, support, size and growth and brand strength.

Three Fitness Franchises Crack Top 100 

Three fitness centers/studios broke into the top hundred on the list, with Crunch Fitness (#29) taking the top spot in the category. 

The popular fitness franchise has been working on an aggressive expansion plan, while one top Michigan-based Crunch Fitness franchisee recently announced plans to open as many as 75 Crunch Fitness gyms with the support of a private equity firm.  

Following Crunch was Anytime Fitness (#77), which inked a deal with Apple Fitness+ to offer the service to its members. There are also growth plans in the works, as Omega Fitness, the second largest Anytime Fitness franchisee in the U.S., was acquired by a private equity firm late last year.

Heart-rate-based boutique fitness franchise Orangetheory Fitness secured the #96 spot. The fitness franchise has developed a loyal following and is now eyeing the U.K. as the “cornerstone” of its international growth strategy. Orangetheory recently forged a deal to acquire and expand its London studios. 

Xponential Brands Make Their Mark

Club Pilates ranked at #202, securing the top Pilates fitness franchise title. Regarded as the most well-known and successful of Xponential’s eleven brands, the franchise has been targeting expansion in Europe. Xponential also saw Pure Barre rank on the list at #224, as the brand sees strong demand in Japan as well as North America.

Notably, only one assisted stretching franchise made the top 500 list: StretchLab, which ranked at #356. Another Xponential-backed fitness franchise, StretchLab, opened an assisted stretching location every three days last year. 

Xponential’s CycleBar also took the single indoor cycling franchise spot at #411. Similarly, only one yoga franchise cracked the top ten — Xponential’s YogaSix at #472. The boutique yoga franchise has grown across the U.S. and even at sea, with a presence on Princess Cruises. 

From Boutique to Big Box

Entrepreneur’s 2024 Franchise 500 Ranking list also highlighted the top contenders in specific fitness and wellness spaces. As demand for personal training continues to grow, The Exercise Coach, a personal training franchise, took the top spot in the category at #159. 

A fitness pioneer, Gold’s Gym took the #176 spot. The long-standing fitness powerhouse brand bolstered its leadership last year with the appointment of two co-CEOs.

Burn Boot Camp (#319) also made the list as the only camp-style fitness concept. A fast-growing 45-minute fitness franchise, Burn Boot Camp offers personal training in a small group setting, ensuring clients get focused attention with its results-driven sessions. 

Mayweather Boxing + Fitness took the top boxing and functional training spot at #357, while RockBox Fitness, a growing boxing, kickboxing and functional strength training franchise, grabbed #499 on the list.

D1 Training, an athletic training franchise with 100-plus facilities, also made the list at #446. Focusing on family workouts, group training and the untapped market of scholastic training, the D1 Training franchise plans to open 50 locations while another 100 are in development.

Wellness Brands Start To Emerge

In an era where busy consumers are looking for non-invasive treatments that promote longevity, energy and a feeling of overall wellness, wellness therapy and supplement franchises are set to flourish. 

Infrared sauna and red light therapy franchisors had strong representation with Perspire Sauna Studio taking the #336 spot. The franchise has been enjoying the “wellness boom,” especially as it zeros in on the Texas market.

Anti-aging and other wellness modalities such as IV therapy, cryotherapy and peptides were honored with Prime IV Hydration & Wellness following at #389. The wellness franchise operates in over 30 states and has been significantly expanding in Arizona.

A complete list of the health and wellness franchises that made Entrepreneur’s 2024 Franchise 500 can be found here. 

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TRX Training, known for its iconic black and yellow straps, is collaborating with Xponential Fitness brands YogaSix and Club Pilates to create custom TRX Suspension Trainers for both franchises.

To bring the product to life, TRX stakeholders worked alongside training and education teams at both Club Pilates and YogaSix; the custom Suspension Trainers feature the colors of each Xponential brand, along with their logos. The partnership marks the first franchise-wide rollout of TRX custom straps.

“The black and yellow Suspension Trainer will always be our globally recognized icon, but it’s exciting to customize our straps for such important partners as Club Pilates and YogaSix,” said Randy Hetrick, TRX founder and chairman. “The initiative reinforces the premium, innovative experiences for which Xponential’s brands, Club Pilates and YogaSix, and TRX are known across the industry.”

The custom Suspension Trainers are launching for all-new studios in 2024 and will be available to the network of 195-plus YogaSix and 935-plus Club Pilates existing locations. Club Pilates is the largest Pilates brand globally, and one of the largest franchised fitness brands, with studios across the globe spanning four continents. YogaSix is one of the world’s largest yoga brands, recently surpassing 600 signed franchise agreements for its concept that offers heated and non-heated yoga classes, bootcamp-style fitness classes and meditation. 

“We’re excited to launch all-new studios with TRX custom Club Pilates and YogaSix Suspension Trainers,” said Erik Haglund, senior vice president of construction support at Xponential. “As a long-term vendor partner of ours, we look forward to continuing our ongoing relationship with TRX to deliver an elevated experience for our members.” 

In November, TRX and Orangetheory Fitness introduced a co-branded suspension trainer. It was one of TRX’s first custom suspension trainers. TRX has made some other big moves this year: it acquired YBell Fitness, a kettlebell-dumbbell combo product. TRX also signed a multi-year lease for a 12,000 square-foot property in Delray Beach, moving its global headquarters from San Francisco to Florida. The move was part of the company’s strategic shift after its acquisition by JFXD Capital’s Jack Daly, which saw Hetrick return to the brand he founded as chairman.

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Activewear giant Alo Yoga is the latest wellness brand to co-mingle with the tourism industry, bringing Alo Moves, its vast online health and fitness content library, to guests staying at The Meritage Collection properties.

Beginning this month, travelers staying at Meritage Collection properties can use their personal device to tap into 3,000-plus Alo Moves fitness and wellness classes across yoga, HIIT, Pilates, strength and meditation with a complimentary trial, exclusive membership pricing and have access to complimentary Alo Moves equipment, such as yoga mats. 

The Meritage Collection, which offers five properties in Napa Valley, California, Kauai, Hawaii, Austin, Texas, and Huntington Beach, California says “in-room Alo Moves experience packages” will soon be available at its resorts.

The Wellness Travel Boom

This year has seen several fitness and wellness brands stamping their passports to journey into the tourism sector, especially as the sought-after Gen Z and millennial consumers already have their bags packed and are ready to jet off to getaways centered on relaxation and wellness.

Further underscoring the desire to relax and unwind, the global wellness tourism market size is projected to reach $2.1 trillion by 2030, according to ResearchandMarkets.com.

Equinox, a major player in luxury fitness offerings, has laid the groundwork to bring an Equinox Hotel to the Red Sea coast in Saudi Arabia. The planned hotel will focus on movement and nutrition with a rooftop magnesium salt pool and signature Equinox fitness club.

Peloton, which partnered with Hilton Hotels last year to feature its Bike at U.S. locations, has recently expanded its deal to Hilton properties in Puerto Rico, Germany, the U.K. and participating properties in Canada.

This fall, boutique fitness franchisor Xponential Fitness and its top brand, Club Pilates, set sail for a week-long Alaskan retreat filled with Pilates enthusiasts. 

Therabody, the wellness and recovery tech brand that put Theragun on the map, even teamed with United Airlines to treat international business class travelers with special Theraface comfort products and access to its devices while in the air. The tech company has also begun to open in-airport Therabody Reset Suites at all United Polaris lounges, complete with its wellness devices and skincare products.

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After successfully establishing itself as the world’s top boutique fitness franchisor, Xponential Fitness is now looking to take over the growing virtual reality arena, beginning with three of its most popular fitness brands.

In order to stake its claim in the metaverse, the fitness curator selected Litesport to develop its popular studio workouts for its virtual and mixed-reality fitness app, Xponential+, available on the Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 2. The new digital workout platform was revealed at the Meta Connect event in September.

Litesport, a fitness and wellness VR/MR tech company formerly known as Liteboxer, knows a thing or two about the magic of VR fitness, having launched its own app with a newly added strength training mode enabling real trainers to appear in a user’s space to offer dumbbell-based workouts.

For $9.99 a month, Xponential+ fitness fans can access Club Pilates, Pure Barre and StretchLab right from home. Rumble Boxing and CycleBar will be added early next year, with BFT, Stride Fitness, Row House and AKT available by the end of 2024.

“We are thrilled to partner with Litesport to introduce Xponential+ to our fitness community,” said Garrett Marshall, president of Xponential+. “This app represents a new era in fitness technology, offering our users a truly immersive and dynamic workout experience. We are excited to see our members achieve their fitness goals in this innovative way.”

The new platform takes into account a user’s physical surroundings to ensure a safe workout experience — users can select from a complete virtual reality studio experience, a mixed reality environment that blends the physical and virtual, or a full passthrough setting, where instructors will appear directly in a user’s physical environment. A controller-free experience using hand-tracking technology allows fitness enthusiasts to freely use dumbbells, bikes, rowers and mats.

Xponential has also earned bragging rights as the first to bring Barre and Pilates into virtual reality, using Surface Sync IP, which transforms a dining chair into a virtual Barre. Plans are also underway to use the same technology to reinvent dust-ridden rowers or exercise bikes into smart hardware that can track fitness stats.

Litesport CEO Jeff Morin calls the partnership with the boutique fitness franchisor a “pivotal moment.”

“Together, we are bringing the future of fitness into millions of homes around the world,” Morin said. “A first-of-its-kind experience bringing well-known brick-and-mortar fitness studios into the virtual world. We are diving headfirst into an unsaturated and high-potential space. Our collaboration will revolutionize the way people engage with their health and wellness, making it more accessible and inspiring than ever before.” 

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For Matt Gordin and Brendan James, franchising is more than just a business endeavor, it’s a family affair.

The brothers-in-law are responsible for bringing some of the biggest brands in boutique fitness to Australia, and they’re just getting started. Through Boutique Fitness Studios (BFS), Gordin and James own the master franchise rights in Australia and New Zealand to four Xponential Fitness brands: Club Pilates, CycleBar, StretchLab and Rumble Boxing. BFS currently has 91 locations sold, with 38 studios opened and several more slated to open by the end of the year.

Virtually all of that growth has come over the last two to three years, and Gordin and James aren’t stopping any time soon. Their goal is to open between 100 and 150 studios Down Under for each Xponential brand in their portfolio.

“If we can hit 500 across the four brands, as far as the Australian market goes, that’s extremely successful,” James told Athletech News.

All in the Family

Gordin and James owe much of their success to sound business acumen and some good fortune, but they also draw from childhood experience. Even before they became brothers-in-law, the pair were exposed to franchising from an early age; Gordin’s father owned bike retail stores and James’ parents ran a card-and-gift franchise group. 

After attending university together, the two eventually relocated to different parts of the U.S., with Gordin pursuing cycling-related entrepreneurial ventures in Los Angeles and James working in options trading in Chicago. Eventually, they both decided to head back to Australia to pursue something new – boutique fitness. 

While he was still living in the U.S., Gordin identified CycleBar as a lucrative brand to bring to the Australian market. As fate would have it, Gordin was living near Xponential’s headquarters in Irvine, California, so he set up a meeting with the boutique fitness franchisor, which just so happened to be searching for international expansion partners. Gordon was the perfect fit, and in 2020, he inked a master franchise deal to bring CycleBar to Australia. 

“They took a bit of a leap of faith in us, and we took a bit of a leap of faith in them,” Gordin says of his first deal with Xponential, although he notes neither side had to do “too much convincing” given their compatibilities.

James embarked on a boutique fitness journey of his own around the same time. Having just moved back to Australia, he was inspired to get into the Pilates business after witnessing the modality’s ability to help his wife recover from a car accident.

“I was in the Sunshine Coast essentially looking for something to do, and I saw how popular Pilates was getting (in Australia), but I also saw that there was a big hole in the market from the style of Pilates my wife had done when we lived in the in the U.S., which was what Club Pilates was doing,” James recalls. “We thought there was definitely a missing piece in the market.”

The Power of Franchising

James initially decided to start his own Pilates brand rather than go the franchising route, opening three locations before deciding to transfer them under the Club Pilates umbrella due to business challenges exacerbated by COVID lockdowns. 

Given his experience, James advises other boutique fitness entrepreneurs to become a franchisee rather than start their own business from scratch.

“I made a lot of mistakes I wouldn’t have made if I’d gone with Club Pilates from the get-go,” James says, noting that prospective franchisees shouldn’t be put off by franchise fees, since they’ll likely make that money back once the business is up and running.

“I spent far more money in covering up mistakes I wouldn’t have had to make had I been part of a group like Xponential (from the start),” he says.

Gordin agrees with James’ assessment, noting that it’s a lot harder for entrepreneurs to start their own franchise brand today than it was in their parents’ days, especially in the current international business environment. 

“It’s almost impossible to do it on your own now,” Gordin says. “I think joining Xponential has fast-tracked us probably five years compared to trying to do it ourselves and prove our own concept.”

Gordin and James both praised Xponential for the brand’s franchise “playbook,” or system of processes and resources that franchisees can use to be successful, including help with real estate, sales, marketing and recruiting staff. 

“There’s nothing left to chance,” Gordin says. “It’s all there for franchisees if they follow the right play.” 

From Franchisees to Master Franchisees

Gordin followed the Xponential playbook to a tee, proving that boutique fitness can work overseas just as effectively as it can in the States. After finding quick success as a CycleBar master franchisee, Gordin grew his Xponential portfolio, picking up the exclusive Australian rights to StretchLab and Rumble Boxing in 2021.

James, meanwhile, steadily grew Club Pilates in Australia, making good on his initial hunch that Pilates was ripe for disruption in his home country.

As brothers-in-law and close friends, Gordin and James kept tabs on each other while they were building up their respective Xponential brands. They decided to team up in January 2023, establishing BFS and creating a four-headed monster with Club Pilates, CycleBar, StretchLab and Rumble all under one umbrella in Australia.

Now, Gordin and James are focused on rapidly scaling those four brands to one day hit the 500-location mark. As master franchisees, the pair essentially operate as franchisors on the ground in Australia, entrusted by Xponential to recruit and manage individual franchisees in the country.

“Our focus is not on running studios, we want to be working on teaching other people how to run studios,” James explains. “We’ve made businesses successful with these brands, so we know how to do it.” 

For James and Gordin, success now comes down to teaching their franchise partners in Australia to trust in the magic of the Xponential playbook. 

“Realistically, what works? Exactly what Xponential said works,” James says. “So we try to push those same learnings (to our franchisees).”

That’s not to say it’s easy. Gordin and James are quick to point out that boutique fitness, like any business, is full of setbacks, challenges and learning curves. Asked what the most important attribute is to be a successful franchisee (or master franchisee), the brothers-in-law have the same word: resilience.

Fortunately, Gordin and James have developed a helpful way of staying calm in the franchising storm.

“We’re like ducks. We keep a nice, cool, calm head up top, but underneath, we’re pedaling like crazy and doing as much work as we can to try and drive these brands and make it as big as we can in this country,” James says. “Every time something gets hard, we just look at each other and go, ‘Just be a duck. Move forward.’”

The post Brother-in-Law Team Brings Xponential Fitness to Australia appeared first on Athletech News.

When Shaun Grove first started with Club Pilates back in 2015, Pilates itself was still a relatively niche exercise modality with limited brand awareness. Xponential Fitness, meanwhile, didn’t even exist.

Fast forward to 2023, and Club Pilates has become one of the most recognized brands in fitness while its parent company Xponential has a burgeoning portfolio of ten boutique brands, with over 2,850 studios across the globe.

Grove has been key to that success, serving as president of Club Pilates between 2015 and 2021, overseeing a period of massive growth for Xponential’s top brand. In March 2021, Grove became president of Rumble Boxing after Xponential acquired the brand, where he was tasked with positioning the boxing concept for early franchise growth.

That move has paid off, as Rumble Boxing had over 65 studios open and 375 franchise licenses signed as of Q2 2023, quite an impressive feat in just two years of franchising.

Grove spoke with Athletech News about his early days at Club Pilates, his close relationship with Xponential founder and CEO Anthony Geisler, and how he’s been able to grow Rumble Boxing into another fitness mega-franchise.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length

Athletech News: Can you tell us about your background in fitness franchising and how you wound up at Xponential?

Shaun Grove: I was a franchise law attorney for many years, and then I met Anthony Geisler, and I became in-house counsel for LA Boxing, which he owned. I then became a franchisee of LA Boxing, opening a location in Long Beach, California, which became the best new store of the year, prompting me to buy several more territories. In that process, we were acquired by UFC Gym, and I became General Counsel at UFC Gym, which I did for another two years or so as I developed my other franchise locations. Eventually, I had four UFC gyms, so I stopped working at the corporate office to focus full-time on operating those as a multi-unit franchisee.

When Anthony left UFC Gym, he and I remained in contact, and he asked me to help him with the due diligence of a new company called Club Pilates. He and I both saw the same great opportunities, and I agreed to partner with him and come on board as president of Club Pilates in 2015. We ran Club Pilates for two years before selling it to a private equity group in 2017. At that time, we decided to create Xponential Fitness with the idea of creating the boutique fitness universe we have today. So I’ve been around since the very beginning of Club Pilates and Xponential. Anthony and I have been together for around 15 years at this point, really joined at the hip.

ATN: What convinced you to take the leap and join Anthony Geisler at Club Pilates back in 2015?

SG: Pilates at that time was a foreign concept to me. It had been around for a while, but nobody had really figured out the distribution model for it, so it was kind of tucked away in these mom-and-pop locations. I thought the space was ripe since it was a great concept that a lot of people seemed to like, but there just wasn’t much public awareness. Anthony and I knew franchising really well and we had some great vendor contacts from the past. Initially, he and I just thought it was going to be a fun project. But to our pleasant surprise, we’ve been running full-sprint since 2015.

ATN: You ran Club Pilates quite successfully from 2015 to 2021. Why did you leave to become Rumble Boxing president in 2021?

SG: It was really a natural transition given my background with LA Boxing and UFC Gym, combined with how well we did with Club Pilates as the first Xponential brand that we launched. We knew Rumble had a cult-like following in New York and a lot of excitement around the brand, so we envisioned that it would have the same growth trajectory we saw with Club Pilates, which it absolutely has. We also developed some really great people at Club Pilates along the way, so I felt it was time for Mike Gray to step in as president and make Club Pilates his own moving forward. 

ATN: What are the main factors behind Rumble’s impressive franchise growth since Xponential acquired the brand in 2021?

SG: It’s the (Xponential) system we have in place, combined with the organic interest for Rumble that’s out there in the market. The founders did a really good job at positioning the original studios – we call those the signature locations – before we started franchising and turning it into the boutique model we have today. They placed their flagship Rumble studio in New York City and then moved to areas like LA, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Chicago. Since the brand was well known in major markets, people who travel to those areas already knew about it, so when we started franchising it, the organic interest was really high. I’d say the organic interest in Rumble was higher than any other brand we’ve had at Xponential. We’ve had a lot of loyal, organic followers who wanted to become franchise partners with us, as well as interest from more traditional business people who want a semi-absentee model.

In terms of Xponential, we have such a tried and tested system today, from franchise sales all the way through to development, which we started with Club Pilates and have brought to all of our other brands. Our franchise sales and marketing teams have done a great job, and the Rumble product speaks for itself.

ATN: How fast is Rumble opening new studios?

SG: It depends on the month, but we’re typically opening around five or more every month. In addition to our 65-plus studios currently open, we have around 45 in presale that will be opening very soon. We’re expecting to be at the 100 studio mark very soon, if not by the end of this year, definitely in Q1 of 2024.

ATN: Rumble also has a growing international presence. How does the brand approach opening studios outside of North America?

SG:  A lot of our international development is multi-unit. We operate those as master franchise relationships, where our international partners basically become “us” in that country, as opposed to Xponential operating those units or supporting them with a more hands-on approach as we would with our domestic franchises. Internationally, it’s more about licensing and finding great partners. Lately, a lot of our international partners have been interested in opening up a handful of our brands, like Club Pilates, StretchLab, CycleBar and Rumble. We have that type of arrangement in places like Australia, Mexico, Kuwait and Japan. 

Overall, we’ve been working hard at developing our international base, and we should have 30 or more studios open globally by Q1 or Q2 of 2024. 

ATN: Strength training is booming right now. What’s consumer demand like for boxing-style workouts?

SG: Demand on the boxing side has always been strong, especially with the way we do it here at Rumble. It’s not so boxing-focused, I really call it “boxing-inspired.” It’s a great cardio workout that’s created around a boxing theme, if you will. We break the class up, so half of the class is spent on the boxing bags and then the other half takes place on the benches where we do strength and conditioning, and you switch every three rounds. So you’re getting a combination of that traditional high-intensity, great cardio boxing workout, and then you’re taking off your gloves and you’re doing strength and conditioning with dumbbells and functional bodyweight movements. For us, the strength training craze has only helped. It’s almost like you’re getting two for one. 

ATN: What are the biggest opportunities and challenges facing boutique fitness brands today?

SG: There are so many options available to consumers today in the boutique fitness market, which is an opportunity and a challenge at the same time. It’s important to keep your concept relevant and exciting, because since there’s so much optionality, when the workout gets stale and members start to get bored, you’re going to lose them very quickly. It’s critically important to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the studio so that you can course-correct where needed and generate some intensity or excitement, or get back to what initially got a member to want to come in and try your concept.

The post CEO Corner: Shaun Grove on Growing Club Pilates, Rumble Boxing appeared first on Athletech News.

Xponential Fitness will introduce a virtual and mixed-reality app on Meta’s Quest 3 headset, bringing virtual fitness content from the boutique fitness franchisor’s brands including Club Pilates, StretchLab and Pure Barre to homes around the world.

The announcement comes during the 2023 Meta Connect conference, the tech giant’s virtual event focused on the much-anticipated Quest 3 mixed reality and VR headset.

Xponential’s collaboration with Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta will provide Quest users with access to the boutique fitness franchisor’s brands while delivering a more authentic virtual fitness experience. Fitness enthusiasts can now be fully immersed in a photo-realistic representation of the actual brand studios. Users can also choose to use the all-new pass-through capabilities of the Quest 3 for a mixed-reality experience that blends the studio with their environment or cast the instructor into their own space for a one-on-one coaching experience.

The new Xponential+ app will utilize the Quest 3’s latest high-tech offerings, such as mixed reality, full-color passthrough and natural depth perception, allowing fitness enthusiasts to incorporate weights and other fitness accessories in their training.

“We’re excited to pioneer a new era in fitness alongside the renowned brand, Meta,” said Garrett Marshall, Xponential+ president. “As these technologies become more mainstream, we’ve seized the opportunity to enhance immersion while maintaining the efficiency of 2D digital fitness. Unlike typical VR fitness games, the Quest 3 headset’s technological advancements empower us to deliver proven workouts from leading fitness brands, all while harnessing the best virtual and social features.”

Xponential Forges Another Partnership

During a recent earnings call with investors, Xponential president Sarah Luna stated that B2B partnerships are a key element of the brand’s omnichannel fitness strategy, providing a way of reaching new audiences, generating revenue and creating lead flow. 

Luna further stated that in the second half of the year, Xponential would continue to explore other B2B partnerships designed to enhance its Xponential+ digital platform and XPass subscription service to bring more consumers into the Xponential ecosystem, including into its physical studios. 

The company has successfully launched Pure Barre, YogaSix and StretchLab on Princess Cruise ships and a Club Pilates retreat that set sail in Alaska earlier this month. More recently, Xponential inked a deal with corporate wellness platform Gympass.

More information on the new Xponential+ VR app can be found here.

The post Exclusive: Xponential Fitness To Unveil VR App for Meta Quest 3 appeared first on Athletech News.

Following two significant announcements amid its recent Analyst and Investor Day, Xponential Fitness is amped over what’s ahead, with the boutique fitness franchisor issuing new three-year operating targets that include opening 500 new studios and hitting $405 million in revenue.

Sarah Luna, president of Xponential since 2021, spoke with Athletech News about what lies ahead for the company, including whether it intends to acquire another boutique fitness brand and its impressive international expansion efforts. Luna also touched on Xponential’s recent collaborations with social media maven Gary Vaynerchuk and corporate wellness platform Gympass.

The Post-Pandemic Rise of Boutique Fitness

Fitness consumers are eager to connect in a post-pandemic environment, seeking experiences, becoming more engaged in their communities and visiting Xponential’s facilities. Connection is part of the allure of a boutique fitness experience, which often emphasizes community and is an atmosphere that Xponential has worked to refine.

“We just continue to see a really strong appetite for community, and that’s one of our value propositions,” Luna said.

In 2024, Luna forecasts that the current enthusiasm for connection will continue, with consumers looking for opportunities for community-building rather than following a specific fitness trend. 

“I don’t know necessarily that there is excitement over one particular modality versus the other, but I do know that people will continue to seek a fulfilling place to spend time – they can find that in our studios,” she said.

The broader shift toward fitness and well-being is working in Xponential’s favor, with consumers embracing healthy habits as part of their identity now more than ever before.

“You see t-shirts all the time that say, ‘I work out, I sleep, I eat, I work out,'” Luna points out, adding that having a gym or fitness membership has become incorporated into the everyday life of a growing number of consumers, as much as going to school or work — which is good news for Xponential. The company currently has over 690,000 members, a 55% increase since 2021.

“It’s a part of people’s daily lives,” Luna said of fitness. “And it’ll just continue to get stronger, especially as we continue to grow our footprint.”

Will Xponential Acquire Another Brand?

Although Xponential currently has ten boutique fitness brands in its portfolio, acquiring an eleventh or twelfth brand is something that the fitness franchisor talks about “all the time,” Luna revealed.

“Throughout COVID, we were able to be opportunistic and keep eyes on many different modalities,” she reflected. “There’s a lot that goes into acquisition decisions, but essentially it boils down to the right time, right place, right economics…and then, of course, the right fit for Xponential — and sometimes you don’t get all of those things to line up perfectly. But at the end of the day, we’ve got our eyes on a lot of different modalities and a lot of different opportunities.”

While Xponential has been focused on fitness, the boutique franchisor is intrigued by the blossoming wellness sector, with Luna confirming that Xponential has had conversations with various companies.

“We already have StretchLab, which has done very, very well for us,” she said. “We are entertaining ideas of how we broaden our portfolio to go a little bit more into the wellness category and what that would look like.” 

Why Franchisees Trust Xponential

One area that Xponential says sets it apart from its competitors is its relationship with its franchisees and the support infrastructure the company has set up for them.

“I think the support that we provide our franchisees is second to none,” Luna said. “I owned a franchise in a different concept, so I’ve seen firsthand what other franchisors are offering. When we work on franchisor panels or we go to different trade events and swap stories on best practices — we’re always a leader.”

Luna also credits franchisees for providing a polished experience for members with a ‘white glove’ approach to service that includes great talent, clean facilities and exceptional customer service.

“Our franchisees are continuing to toe this line of being best in class, not only in boutique fitness but all things that roll up to a boutique fitness experience,” she said. “It’s not just having a great product, but it’s every step of the way that we touch the customer, that we interact with the customer that we continue to be top notch.”

The Power of Gary Vee

Xponential recently tapped entrepreneur and social media star Gary Vaynerchuk’s media agency to oversee its marketing and content efforts across all of its ten brands. The deal will see Vaynerchuk directly lead Xponential’s marketing plans effective October 1, 2023. 

“He did an incredible job on Wednesday,” Luna said of Vaynerchuk, who spoke at Xponential’s Analyst and Investor Day on September 6. “What I loved about what he reiterated was the fact that his team is going to be looking at digital marketing and consumer trends on a daily basis.”

As Luna explained, many professionals who are welcomed into the Xponential franchise family come from various backgrounds, with some learning about marketing, networking and grassroots efforts for the first time.

Although Luna says Xponential’s teams do an excellent job of educating franchisees on the importance of marketing, Vaynerchuk’s expertise will enable the boutique fitness franchisor to concentrate on supporting franchisees in other areas.

“What Gary’s team will bring to the table is that they’ll be able to single-handedly focus just on using digital marketing to acquire new leads, and that’s what they’ll be thinking about each and every day,” Luna shared.

Behind the Gympass Deal

As corporate wellness becomes a major part of the employee experience, Xponential also announced last week that it has partnered with Gympass to further solidify its position as a fitness and wellness leader.

“It’s the right time and it’s the right deal to do and to bring to our franchise partners,” Luna said of the Gympass partnership. “And it just makes sense as we continue to open 500 studios on a yearly basis. That will continue to enable us to be the dominant player for boutique fitness.”

The post-pandemic hybrid work models are favorable to Xponential’s ambitions.

“Most employers have to offer all of their employees the exact same benefits and experience whether they’re remote or they’re in-office,” Luna pointed out. “What you saw before COVID (because everyone was in-office) was that corporations could do small-scale deals with maybe a five-unit gym or a local operator because they knew that all of their employees were in the area and would have equal access.”

Now, with more national and global companies adopting a hybrid or semi-remote model, Xponential can offer a full portfolio of fitness and wellness offerings, ensuring that there is something for everyone.

“Employees can now choose whether they want to do yoga, Pilates or cycling, and don’t all have to love one particular modality,” said Luna. “That’s ultimately what we bring to Gympass and what we’re going to further bring to corporate employees as well.”

B2B Partnerships Are a Key Focus

Xponential has had success with numerous B2B partnerships, recently expanding its deal with Lululemon to add Pure Barre, Rumble Boxing, AKT and YogaSix to the Lululemon Studio platform. The fitness franchisor has also forged partnerships with brands including Perfect Bar, LA Fitness, Princess Cruises, LG, Aktiv, Celsius and Territory, all of which are designed to attract new members and increase brand awareness.

It’s an area Xponential will undoubtedly continue to tap into as it looks to the future.

“We’re in conversations and we have a huge lead list of companies that we’re talking to,” Luna confirmed. “We’ve already filled out our domestic aggregator partnerships. In terms of where our focus and our attention is going to be, it’ll be on finding products or services that are like-minded and would fit naturally into our offerings to bring additional benefit to our end consumer.”

International Expansion Plans

As Xponential celebrates domestic success, it’s also steadily focused on international expansion, with Australia, Europe and Japan identified as key, emerging markets.

“I think that international expansion often gets a little lost on some people, but it’s kind of like this growing snowball,” Luna said. “Talking to our master franchisees and looking at the numbers on the sheet and going, wow — internationally we’re getting bigger each and every day.”

Earlier this summer, Xponential signed a master franchise agreement in France for Club Pilates to license a minimum of 75 studios in the country over the next ten years and celebrated the opening of StretchLab in Sydney, Australia. Xponential has also entered into master franchise agreements for StretchLab, AKT and Rumble in Japan.

“Every day, we’re opening new businesses and we’re leveraging the knowledge and skill set of what we’ve done here domestically,” Luna said. “When you look at all of our growth domestically, it’s impressive and it’s exciting, and then you look at our global growth and it’s just even more exciting.”

The post Exclusive: Xponential President Talks Acquisition Plans, Gary Vaynerchuk Partnership appeared first on Athletech News.

In today’s age of social media and instant advertising, PR often gets the short end of the stick in the marketing mix of companies, including those in the fitness franchising space. That may be a costly mistake though, both for fitness brands and their franchisees. 

For fitness franchises, investing the time and resources necessary to build an effective PR strategy usually pays dividends in the long run: a 2014 Nielsen study showed that PR was 90% more effective than advertising in influencing consumers.

Statistics have also shown that compared to traditional forms of marketing, PR can be more beneficial for brands in building trust, enhancing credibility, increasing organic reach and building long-term brand recognition, according to research aggregated by Society 22 PR. For those reasons, PR is often more cost-effective than advertising. 

Nicole Dunn, CEO of Dunn Pellier Media, a Health & Wellness PR Agency that’s worked with top franchises including Club Pilates, Orangetheory Fitness, F45 Training and Perspire Sauna Studio, spoke with Athletech News about how fitness franchises can build a winning PR strategy and the business benefits of doing so. 

Hire a PR Firm That Specializes in Fitness & Wellness

For fitness franchises looking to reap the brand-building benefits of good press, it’s best to hire a PR firm that knows the space intimately. This has many benefits, including getting an expert’s take on which PR strategy to pursue in the first place. 

Dunn notes that for some fitness franchises, it makes sense to target national media outlets. For others, seeking coverage in B2B publications will be more beneficial. 

When Dunn Pellier Media was working with Club Pilates, the PR firm got the Pilates franchisor a spot on “Extra,” the popular celebrity news show filmed in Hollywood. 

“We actually brought reformers to the Universal Studios set,” Dunn recalls of the spot, which aired in early 2017 and featured Extra host Charissa Thompson doing a Pilates workout on-air. “It was just great for the brand.”

A national TV spot made sense for a big brand like Club Pilates, which was going for a more direct-to-consumer play with its PR.

For Perspire Sauna, a rapidly growing franchisor of infrared and red-light therapy studios, the Dunn Pellier Media team pursued a B2B approach that included placements in franchise-focused publications. The idea was to get Perspire’s name out there to potential franchisees.

“It wasn’t all the splash and gold and Hollywood,” Dunn says. “They used us instead to set a presence and build awareness and visibility for the brand.”

Whether it’s getting featured on national TV or generating a solid reputation in the industry, at the end of the day, PR, like almost everything else in business, is about relationships. 

“We have a competitive advantage over other PR firms because we’re in this space,” Dunn says of her firm’s fitness, health and wellness expertise. “We know the players, we know the people and we know the brands. We also have relationships with all these media outlets because we’ve been doing PR for 17 years.”

Tell Good Stories To Drive Media Interest

The process of getting your brand covered in top media outlets – whether TV, online or in print – may seem shrouded in mystery, but a large part of it comes down to having a good story to tell.

According to Dunn, fitness franchises whose founders have compelling backstories about why they started the brand tend to pique the media’s interest. Dunn mentioned Anne Mahlum, the founder of Solidcore, and Mahlum’s story about being so enthralled with her first Pilates class back in 2013 that she decided to start her own boutique fitness concept based on the modality. 

Fitness franchises can also leverage “before and after” testimonials from customers, like a member that lost a bunch of weight or transformed their body by doing a certain workout style.

“The media loves those kinds of stories,” Dunn notes.

Fitness franchises should also think long and hard about creating a concept truly actually innovative, and then craft a compelling narrative about what makes them new and different from their competitors. That’s tough to pull off, but it’s a surefire way to drum up media interest. 

“We’ve all done the same old Pilates workout or the same old HIIT workout,” Dunn says. “What’s something that’s new and inventive? How are people doing well utilizing this program? The media looks for that.”

Fitness franchises should also take advantage of seasonal opportunities to tell interesting stories. Themes like New Year’s resolutions and getting your ideal body in time for the summer are common themes that media outlets look for year after year. 

“It’s a regurgitation of the holidays, but as a PR player, you figure out how to make it exciting,” Dunn says.

Find a Spokesperson 

Media outlets are after clicks, views and ratings, so finding a celebrity or an otherwise engaging spokesperson to tell your brand’s story is vital. 

Dunn Pellier Media helped position Mark Wahlberg as the face of F45 and the brand’s functional training workouts. While F45 has experienced some financial difficulties as of late, the franchise exploded onto the scene several years ago, thanks in large part to Wahlberg’s constant promotion. In a testament to the long-lasting effects of positive PR, F45 still maintains a flock of loyal fans despite its recent troubles. 

Dunn Pellier Media also worked with an Orangetheory franchisee in Los Angeles to secure TV segments featuring Britney Spears, who had attended the boutique fitness studio’s locations in Southern California. Orangetheory was even featured in Spears’ 2016 music video for the song “Make Me.”

“Aligning yourself with somebody that can speak to the masses is always good,” Dunn says. 

For fitness franchises, finding celebrities is great, but a brand spokesperson can come from within a company as well. 

Some brands find success in positioning their CEO as a thought leader and educator. During its work with Les Mills, Dunn Pellier Media helped grow the profile of Sean Turner, CEO of Les Mills US, getting Turner interviews in leading industry publications. 

The executive-as-a-thought-leader approach works particularly well for a brand like Les Mills; since the group fitness company licenses its workouts to gyms across the world, a B2B approach makes sense. 

On the direct-to-consumer side, fitness franchises can leverage personal trainers or instructors who have big personalities. Dunn mentioned Stacey Zielinski, a trainer at AKT, Xponential’s dance-inspired fitness brand, as the type of energetic and engaging personality that’s tailor-made for media. 

“She’s awesome on camera, she’s smiling and she’s happy, she just kills it,” Dunn says of Zielinski. “Brands can utilize someone like that.”

Create a PR Playbook for Franchisees

Fitness franchises make painstaking efforts to give their franchisees all the tools they need for success on the business side. However, they sometimes overlook the PR part of the equation. 

“A lot of franchises don’t pay enough attention to instructing and teaching their franchisees how to build a media portfolio,” Dunn believes. 

Dunn encourages fitness franchises to create a “PR playbook” for their franchisees to equip them with a solid understanding of how to manage media endeavors. A playbook should include things like how to pitch stories to the media, what kinds of stories resonate with the media and which parts of the brand a franchisee should focus on while doing interviews.

“It’s just the basic training of what PR is, how it’s going to help you and how you use it,” Dunn says, noting that Dunn Pellier Media has helped companies create PR playbooks. 

For example, franchisees often need help figuring out which types of events and announcements warrant a press release and which ones aren’t worth the trouble. 

“If you’re doing a special event like raising money for the community at your location, that could be news,” Dunn says by way of example. “But on the other hand, people come up with these ideas that just aren’t newsworthy, and it’s a waste of everyone’s time.”

Having a PR playbook for franchisees can pay off, especially in smaller markets that a parent brand might not target with its own company-wide PR efforts.

“They always have key locations that do the PR in places like LA, New York, or Seattle, but what about the inbetweeners that could be doing localized PR in their own state and their own town to gain notoriety?” Dunn says. “I think that’s equally important, and some franchises don’t emphasize that enough in growing their brand.”

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

While taking the steps to build good PR is highly effective in the long run, Dunn cautions that it typically takes time for brands to see real results in terms of favorable coverage,

That’s getting harder to accept given the instant gratification of social media, but Dunn believes fitness franchises that focus on PR will be rewarded for their patience. 

“I believe in the power of PR,” she says. “You’re reaching a completely different audience than you would if you were just doing social media.”

The post How Fitness Franchises Can Craft a Winning PR Strategy appeared first on Athletech News.

Four Xponential Fitness brands have been recognized as top franchises by Entrepreneur magazine.

Entrepreneur has listed Club Pilates, Pure Barre, StretchLab and Yoga Six on its Best of the Best Franchises list, with all four brands holding the number one ranking in the Pilates, Barre, assisted-stretching and yoga categories, respectively.

The rankings are featured in the magazine’s July/August issue.

Five Xponential brands were also ranked on Entrepreneur’s Top Franchises for Multi-Unit Owners list, which recognizes companies with the most compelling multi-unit ownership, placing Club Pilates at # 51, Pure Barre at 78, StretchLab at 110, CycleBar at 148 and YogaSix at 150. 

“I’ve been really successful as an all-in owner with the support Xponential provides,” said Sydnie Whitmer, a CycleBar franchise owner from Colorado. “I have been riding that train and it’s been successful, so I’m not going to stop.”

The recognition is welcome news for Xponential, which has had a bumpy summer following a short-seller report by Fuzzy Panda Research that was released in late June questioning the long-term health and viability of its boutique fitness franchising model.

Shares of Xponential have yet to fully recover from the report, although Wall Street analysts are bullish on the boutique fitness franchisor in the long term, setting an average target price of $39. Shares of Xponential, currently $19.81, are down approximately 27% in the last six months.

Sarah Luna, president of Xponential Fitness, says the Entrepreneur accolades are a true testament to the company’s strength and innovation within the boutique fitness space and shows the dedication and hard work of Xponential’s franchise partners and studio team members. 

“We are still in the early stages of global growth and development and are excited to see where all our brands and franchise partners can build fitness communities with our industry-leading boutique fitness offerings,” Luna said.

On the global growth front, Xponential opened its first Club Pilates in Frankfurt, Germany, earlier this year and signed master franchise agreements in Ireland and Switzerland. More recently, the Club Pilates brand entered France, with a master franchise agreement to license a minimum of 75 Club Pilates studios in the country over the next ten years.

Club Pilates, Rumble, CycleBar, AKT and StretchLab have also signed master franchise agreements in Japan. 

The boutique fitness franchisor recently renewed its content partnership with Lululemon.

Xponential’s next earnings report is slated for Aug 3.

The post Xponential Sees Several Brands Recognized as Top Franchises appeared first on Athletech News.

Heather Rhyu got into the fitness business almost by accident. In 2015, she moved from San Francisco to New York with her husband and baby daughter. Armed with both an MBA and a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) certification, she had made it in the world of finance, but felt she was missing out on life.

“I worked really hard to get where I was but wasn’t really that happy to just be sitting at a desk all day,” she said. “I felt like I was missing time with my kid, and had another one on the way.”

One day she got a cold call from a franchise consultant.

“I was skeptical to take her call initially, but was in a place in my life where I was ready to make a change, so I thought, why not. Let’s go for it.”

Rhyu, who was born in southern California but grew up mostly in Westchester, told the consultant about being bitten by the fitness bug during college and her longtime desire to own her own business. A month later, she was presented with three fitness franchise ideas. Although the cycling and kickboxing options weren’t particularly interesting to her, the third idea, Pilates, caught her attention. The franchisor was headquartered in southern California.

“I had a trip to LA planned to visit family, so we tacked on a trip to Irvine. I met the Club Pilates team and really fell in love with the concept, and thought they would be great to work with, even though I didn’t know a whole lot about Pilates back then.”

After doing some research, Rhyu realized that Westchester County, the suburb of New York City where she now lived, was an untapped market for the exercise modality that was beginning to increase in popularity elsewhere in the country. There were a few small studios in Westchester with one or two reformers, which limited their offerings to private sessions or duets (two-person classes). The Club Pilates layout with 12 reformer stations could serve a larger audience and make reformer Pilates more accessible.

Rhyu signed her licensing agreement in the summer of 2016 and a lease a few months later, finally opening her first studio, in Scarsdale, in March 2017. Over the next two and a half years she would open two more, followed by a Rumble boxing gym this year that she co-owns with one of her instructors.

The appeal of the Pilates modality, according to Rhyu, is its stickiness.

“When someone gets into Pilates, they can’t just stop and move to a different form of exercise. Many of our members have been with us since day one. It is the only thing that works forever. It’s such a good thing to be doing for your body, and it makes your body actually feel better and work better. I play a lot of tennis. I like to stay active. But when I don’t do at least two Pilates classes a week, I definitely notice the difference with my back. I think you’re just more injury prone without that core workout.”

Getting Started

Rhyu got a lot of support from the corporate Club Pilates team in Irvine to help make her dream a reality. She was assigned a commercial real estate broker to work with and given a list of recommended vendors, including a lease attorney and architect. Although franchisees can select their own contractors, they have no say in how the studio is set up.

“All of the Club Pilates have to look exactly the same, and I think that makes a lot of sense for the brand,” she says. “The main studio must have 12 Balanced Body reformers stations, or more if you’re doing a double studio. You must have the TRX, the Bosu ball, the Balanced Body bar and springboard. Xponential makes it very easy. In the private room, you have a little more flexibility depending on how much space you have.”

To run the front and back ends of the business, clubs use an app called Club Ready that is provided by and supported by Xponential. Franchisees don’t need to worry about the tech part.

Pilates was less known when Rhyu was starting out than it is today.

“People were commenting on our Facebook posts saying ‘I don’t even know what this is,'” she recalls. “It took a while to really ramp up Scarsdale. And then by the time I opened Ardsley six months later, the local Pilates community was growing, and that created excitement about the opening. We had a little bit of cannibalization at first, but not too much. And then a couple of years later, when I opened New Rochelle, I think Pilates was more popular.”

Rhyu’s three Club Pilates studios have an extremely active and engaged membership and a full slate of classes that almost always have wait lists. Although she doesn’t do any paid advertising, she receives about 5-10 leads per day that result in the membership growth to replace the 4-5% per month attrition her studios experience (which is lower than the 6% average for the Club Pilates system).

She was able to recoup her investment (which, according to Sharpsheets.io, is typically around $300K per studio) in fewer than the three and a half years it takes the average Club Pilates franchisee.  Rhyu said that margins at her studios are strong and financial performance has exceeded her expectations.

For the past several years, her clubs have ranked among the highest in the company for revenue from private sessions. Part of this may be due to the affluence of Westchester County, where median household income is 30% higher than the country as a whole.

Social media is another factor, she says.

“I think all the reformer Pilates studios got a bump in demand and revenue because people were posting about it on TikTok. So, it’s kind of nice because I wasn’t personally posting on the platform, but a lot of others, including celebrities and athletes, were doing so.”

The Advantage of Business Experience

Before Anthony Geisler and Xponential took over Club Pilates in 2015, many of the brand’s franchisees were Pilates instructors. Although they knew how to teach, they didn’t really understand how to run a business. Rhyu feels her business experience has played a major role in her success as a franchisee.

“I was a business major in college, and then right out of college was working in operations for Universal Studios in LA. It was not glamorous at all, but it was an entry point into corporate America. Later, I went back to business school and got into finance. Understanding the business side, the numbers side, really helped. Also, I’ve been on the sales side, too, which obviously is important when you’re in a customer-facing business.”

Although many of the original Club Pilates franchisees stayed for a few years after Geisler bought the company, Rhyu said that as Xponential grew, some of them decided the new business model wasn’t working for them.

“For some of the core crew, it wasn’t the same relationship. It was a different dynamic, and I think some people didn’t like it and decided to get out.”

Many sold to a new breed of franchisees who, like Nashville-based David Schuck, were beginning to accumulate large portfolios of fitness studios. Schuck’s company Spartan Fitness Holdings, backed by private equity firm Snapdragon Capital Partners, is now the largest Club Pilates franchisee with around 40 Club Pilates studios in Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, Ohio and Kansas.  

Rhyu is open to buying more Club Pilates franchises if the territories have potential and are conveniently located. But it’s getting harder and harder.

“I feel extremely lucky about my timing because now you can’t even find a Club Pilates if you wanted to open one,” she says. “You’d have to purchase one from another franchisee, or settle for one in an area you don’t want to be in.”

Tradeoffs

Rhyu enjoys some aspects of the business more than others.

“I don’t mind doing payroll, and I enjoy doing the reporting stuff. People are always joking about Excel, but I’m an Excel wizard. Anything that’s related to reporting and numbers, that’s my thing. And I love to be able to go in and take classes and see members.”

Marketing, however, is a side of the business she has not yet acquired a taste for.

“It’s extremely time-consuming, you have to spend a lot of time on social media, email marketing, things I don’t love but that I understand are a key part of the business. There’s a lot of detail in marketing now that it’s gone digital. It’s no longer as simple as you approve this campaign and then it launches.”

Her studios have monthly goals, and part of the managers’ compensation is a bonus tied to results like revenue and member retention. Rhyu feels there’s always room to run the business in a more professional way, however.

“There’s a franchisee who owns five studios in Chicago and has an entire management team of eight or 10 full-time salaried people, including a lead instructor and a district manager. As you open more studios, you can’t be as involved as you were with number one. And I find that the hardest thing for me is to figure out the balance and try to delegate, to empower my managers to take over the things that I was once doing without checking back all the time.”

When asked what the biggest challenges are on an ongoing basis, Rhyu was unequivocal.

“Staff turnover is always a difficult challenge, especially if you lose an instructor who’s teaching a lot, because it’s just so hard to find Pilates instructors. We conduct teacher training every year, but there still aren’t enough of them right now.”

How does she retain talent? “Obviously, compensation matters for everybody, but I also think it’s hard to build and maintain a culture the way our work environment is set up,” Rhyu says. “It’s not like an office where you have interactions with multiple people throughout the day. I have close to 40 employees across the three Club Pilates locations and many of them don’t know each other. I try to organize at least two social events a year.”

As is always the case in life, there are tradeoffs that come with being your own boss.

“I tell people who are thinking of making this move that you just have to have a strong backbone and be able to deal with the small fires because there really is never a dull day, there’s always something going on, whether your toilet’s clogged, or there’s a leak, or somebody quit, or an instructor didn’t show up, or a member is angry and wants six months of refunds,” Rhyu says.

These “small fires” pale in comparison to the pandemic, however.

“It was crazy, because we were in the heart of it,” Rhyu recalls. “New Rochelle was Ground Zero for COVID-19 in the U.S. I remember having a call with Anthony (Geisler) because I had a staff member in New Rochelle who had tested positive. We thought we could just close that location and keep the other two open. And then within a week or two, the whole world was shut down. We got very entrepreneurial, creating content for streaming and online classes. Luckily, we only had to close the studios for 6 months.”

About that fateful day in 2015 when she took the franchise consultant’s call, Rhyu says, “I’m so happy I made the decision that I made. I can’t imagine still working in the corporate world. I love the life that I’ve built. It’s really allowed me to have so much flexibility and time at home with my kids. If I want to make time to play tennis, I can do it. I think not reporting to someone has been nice, too.”

“Although I give all the credit to my amazing instructors for helping members move and feel better, I feel like I’m doing my part to give people access to something that will improve their lives. I feel like this was what I was meant to do.”

The post Club Pilates Franchisee Finds Her True Calling in Boutique Fitness appeared first on Athletech News.

The Xponential Fitness-owned Club Pilates and Self Esteem Brands-owned Anytime Fitness have announced significant deals that will advance the fitness industry in France while also propelling their companies’ global expansion plans.

France has steadily recovered from the pandemic’s impact, and its fitness market is expected to grow rapidly. 

Trends such as boutique fitness studios, VR, fitness wearables, hybrid gym memberships and tech advancements are all credited to the projected fitness market growth in France, according to analysts at Ken Research. 

Club Pilates Continues European Expansion

Xponential Fitness has signed a master franchise agreement in France for Club Pilates after recently signing master franchise agreements for the Pilates concept in Ireland and Switzerland.

The boutique fitness franchisor says the deal represents its 19th international country outside of North America and allows the master franchisee to license a minimum of 75 Club Pilates studios in France over the next ten years.

The agreement was signed with TCMP Fitness L.P. and partners Susan and Chris Fichaud and will add to Club Pilates’ rapid expansion across Spain and Germany, where it already has studios opened. Xponential Fitness confirms that development agreements are also in place for Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal and the U.K. 

The fitness franchisor says it is encouraged by the European Pilates and yoga studio market, which it says is projected to reach $71.2 million by 2030 according to Allied Market Research.

“France is the third largest fitness market in Europe and Club Pilates is perfectly suited to appeal to discerning French consumers looking for an outstanding workout and a supportive community of like-minded customers,” said John Kersh, chief international development officer of Xponential. “We have high expectations for Club Pilates in France and we are excited to continue to support Chris and Susan on their long-term development and franchising efforts.”

While Xponential has shaken off recession fears, stating that its consumers are resilient, shares of XPOF are still recovering after a short-seller report was released last month. Xponential has denied the allegations by Fuzzy Panda Research, and Wall Street analysts are bullish on the fitness franchisor.

Anytime Fitness To Open Locations Across France

Self Esteem Brands, the parent company of a vast portfolio of fitness, health and wellness brands, announced that Anytime France SARL has joined Anytime Fitness as its latest master franchisee. 

With the addition of France, Self Esteem Brands will have Anytime Fitness clubs operating in 41 countries and territories, but by all accounts, Self Esteem Brands is just getting started with its global growth strategy. The company aspires to open 10,000 fitness, health and wellness clubs and studios worldwide by 2030.

Sander van den Born, executive vice president of international, Self Esteem Brands, said that the moment is right, noting the general recovery of the fitness market in France.

“We are well placed to bring the Anytime Fitness brand here as we accelerate our growth across the European landscape,” said van den Born. “Working with two exceptional, experienced Anytime Fitness club owners, we are proud to know the brand will play an active role in helping the people of France on their personal health and well-being journeys.”

Anytime France, owned by Benoit Hanssen and Matt Burgess, will open Anytime Fitness Clubs across Paris, Ile-de-France, Auvergne, Rhone-Alpes, Provence-Alpes and Cote d’Azur. Hanssen and Burgess also operate Anytime Fitness clubs across Italy.

The fitness company will soon announce specific locations and opening dates of the Anytime France locations.

“We’re excited to bring the biggest global fitness brand to France,” Burgess said. “Coupled with our learnings from neighboring market Italy, and the addition of the local French flavor to the U.S. model, we are confident in our plans for growth, enabling the people of France to meet their fitness and well-being goals.”

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The fitness-tourism partnership between Xponential Fitness and Princess Cruises has deepened, with the boutique fitness curator’s signature Pilates brand, Club Pilates, hitting the high seas.

A week-long, round-trip cruise with top instructors, Club Pilates at Sea: An Alaska Retreat, is planned for September 2 to 9 on Royal Princess. 

While on board the ship, guests can enjoy a full range of Pilates and other Xponential fitness classes. The fitness voyage provides more than just flexibility — cruisers will also take in the best that Alaska offers, reveling in the beauty of Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan, with a visit to Victoria, British Columbia.

“We’re beyond thrilled to partner with Princess Cruises – Alaska’s number one cruise operator – on our first-ever Club Pilates cruise which offers our members and those interested in fitness a unique opportunity to enjoy classes led by the best instructors in fitness, meet new people, and marvel at Alaska’s pristine natural beauty. We can’t wait to welcome everyone on board,” said Mike Gray, president of Club Pilates. 

Cruisegoers can participate in a Club Pilates class amidst the backdrop of glaciers and mountains, promising a remarkable and exhilarating experience that may even break a record as the cruise operator and Club Pilates will attempt to execute the largest outdoor Pilates event worldwide. 

Fitness enthusiasts can keep up the active momentum by selecting nature-based land experiences, such as hiking, canoeing and ziplining, or take a more relaxed approach with whale watching, salmon bakes and experiencing tours of historic Gold Rush towns.

Best of all, visitors have a great chance of catching a view of the Northern Lights as Club Pilates at Sea will cruise during the peak season of the Aurora Borealis. There will also be opportunities for a moonlit Glow Flow class and a Restore and Relax Sanctuary class for “ultimate relaxation” with lit candles, sound healing and acupuncture.  

Xponential announced a five-year licensing deal with Princess Cruises last fall. The partnership is part of a larger trend that blends travel with fitness.

Similar to Xponential and Princess Cruises, Peloton has forged a partnership with Hilton Hotels. Such collaborations are lucrative, especially after a recent report by American Express revealed boutique wellness experiences are exactly what travelers desire.

Club Pilates, one of Xponential’s ten boutique fitness brands, has been identified as part of the franchisor’s international growth plan. The Pilates brand already operates in Japan and has also signed master franchise agreements in Ireland and Switzerland. Earlier this year, Xponential opened its first Club Pilates in Frankfurt, Germany.

Reservations for Club Pilates at Sea can be made here. 

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After being dubbed a house of cards on the verge of collapse by a short-seller report published last week, Xponential Fitness is fighting back and appears to have the support of Wall Street analysts, who believe the boutique fitness company’s stock is likely to make a full comeback.

The question, however, is when?

Despite the initial optimism from analysts, which helped Xponential’s stock rebound some from a low of $14.5 early last week, the boutique fitness company was only trading at $17.5 as of Monday afternoon, down 30% from its pre-report level of $25.1.

Report Attacks Xponential’s Financial Health

Last week, a scathing short-seller report released by Fuzzy Panda Research caused shares of Xponential to plummet 37%. 

Among the many allegations, the report indicated that over half of Xponential studios never make a positive financial return and eight of the boutique fitness franchisor’s ten brands are losing money.

Upon the release of the Fuzzy Panda report, one Baird analyst maintained a neutral rating of Xponential but lowered the stock price target to $23 from $36, according to BestStocks.

Xponential quickly reacted the next day, releasing an official statement refuting the report’s numerous claims, calling them “misleading” and “inaccurate.” The company’s shares rose nearly 18% in response. 

Analysts Bullish on Xponential’s Future

Compared to Baird’s (perhaps conservative) approach, other analysts maintained a Buy rating for Xponential, including Evercore ISI, Jefferies and Raymond James. 

As MarketBeat reports, while the short-seller report may have led the analysts mentioned above to adjust price targets, the group’s average target of $39 indicates a strong belief in the boutique fitness franchisor and that this will be just a small bump on the road to long-term success.

Jefferies analyst Randal Konik recommended investors buy XPOF on the dip, believing Fuzzy Panda’s report seemed like a “stretch” and setting a $45 stock price target, according to MarketWatch.

Likewise, MarketBeat cites the fitness company’s revenue increase in Q1, membership growth and expanding footprint as positive signs.

Xponential’s next earnings report is expected on August 10.

Simply Another Challenge To Overcome?

Xponential, ever-confident, has weathered other recent storms with ease. By all accounts, the boutique fitness franchisor has long seemed untouchable, seemingly coasting through the challenges of the pandemic. 

 “While others were shrinking, we were growing,” Xponential founder and CEO Anthony Geisler said last month at TD Cowen’s 7th Annual Future of the Consumer Conference, referring to the pandemic.

The boutique fitness franchisor recently increased its full-year 2023 guidance for system-wide sales, revenue and Adjusted EBITDA based on its successful performance in Q1 and the beginning of the second quarter.

International Growth & B2B Partnerships

Aside from the Fuzzy Panda Research report drama, Xponential has been setting its sights on international growth, opening its first Club Pilates in Frankfurt, Germany, in early 2023.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the boutique fitness franchisor has five brands that have signed master franchise agreements, including Club Pilates, Rumble, CycleBar, AKT and StretchLab. 

Club Pilates also recently signed master franchise agreements in Ireland and Switzerland. 

On the B2B partnerships side, Xponential sees XPlus, its on-demand platform, as a key driver. The company reported that at the end of Q1, it had over 140,000 subscribers on Xponential+, many of whom also have in-studio memberships.

The company recently launched XPlus on LG Electronics Smart TVs.

Another blossoming partnership is with Aktiv Solutions, which offers immersive Xponential exercise experiences for hotels and resorts, corporate campuses, universities and high-end multifamily housing properties. Xponential has also brought its boutique fitness approach to the high seas, striking a deal with Princess Cruises.

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