With over 450 gyms and extra to return, Crunch CEO Jim Rowley dishes on the model’s strategy to health and franchising in 2024 and past
Crunch Health has come a good distance since Doug Levine based the model out of a basement in New York Metropolis’s Greenwich Village neighborhood again in 1989, however the firm hasn’t forgotten its roots because it’s expanded throughout the globe.
With greater than 450 areas open, 1,400 franchise licenses bought and over 2 million members, Crunch Health is in a high-growth part. Nonetheless, the model nonetheless abides by its authentic “No Judgements” philosophy of creating health enjoyable and accessible.
Thirty-five years in the past, that meant creating gyms that didn’t scare individuals off in an period when health was way more hardcore and far much less mainstream than it’s right this moment. In 2023, that’s nonetheless vital, however Crunch’s conception of what “no judgements” means has advanced into additionally offering all of the facilities, modalities and instruments its members must have an important expertise, in no matter kind that will take.
“The large factor for us is to fulfill our members, or potential members, the place they’re,” Crunch CEO Jim Rowley says of the corporate’s philosophy because it expands.
Rowley spoke with Athletech Information about how Crunch designs its gyms within the fashionable period, the best way it’s approaching digital health content material and what’s in retailer for the corporate because it continues to increase.
Open Ground Plans Are In, However So Is Neighborhood
It’s no secret that gyms have gotten extra open, with massive, turf-filled useful coaching areas more and more taking the place of cardio and single-use weight machines.
“The health club of right this moment is a lot completely different than the health club of 5 years in the past, it’s unimaginable,” Rowley says. “Right now’s gym-goer needs extra free area and in that free area, they may deliver their iPhone or their iPad and do a digital exercise. They’re going to deliver bands, dumbbells and kettlebells – completely different exercise components – they usually’re going to work out on this tight, little area inside a giant, open area.”
On this new period, one of many greatest challenges for gyms is discovering methods to offer members the open area they want whereas nonetheless fostering a way of neighborhood at a brick-and-mortar location.
For health club homeowners who naturally need to maximize each sq. foot of their facility, opening up the ground and eradicating tools could seem counterintuitive. However the Crunch crew is working with its franchisees to design artistic layouts that leverage open area for the good thing about members, which in flip boosts enterprise.
“That features much more Olympic weightlifting racks, relax-and-recover areas, and open area that works for the members,” Rowley says. “It’s lighting that permits them to be socially linked as effectively, as a result of lighting is critically vital if you’re filming your self or taking a selfie you need to share in your social pages.”
Group Health Stays Very important
The elevated emphasis on open area in fashionable gyms isn’t to say that closed-door group train lessons are fading in recognition. Rowley says Crunch is as dedicated as ever to its group health choices, which embody a big catalog of proprietary lessons that vary from power coaching to Pilates to boxing.
“We’ve (additionally) been spending plenty of time and power on the meditative state and breathwork, and doing issues which can be about decreasing your stress, enhancing your life-style and so forth,” Rowley provides of Crunch’s strategy to group health.
Embracing Digital Health
Whereas Crunch’s brick-and-mortar franchise enterprise is flourishing, the corporate can be investing closely in digital health content material. In early 2023, the model launched Crunch+, an on-demand and dwell streaming platform that provides customers entry to a spread of health and wellness lessons together with HIIT, yoga, cardio boxing, stretching, Pilates and meditation. Crunch can be creating short-form digital health content material to succeed in members who’re pressed for time however don’t need to miss their each day exercise.
The thought behind Crunch+ isn’t to exchange the standard in-person expertise however to complement it with extra health and wellness content material for members who can’t get to the health club.
“If we will enhance (members’) exercise quantity by one to 2 instances per week, after they’re at dwelling on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, or on a wet Monday morning, that’s all we’re on the lookout for,” Rowley explains. “It’s a complement. We don’t take a look at it as changing something by way of brick and mortar.”
Nonetheless, with the digital platform, Crunch can be seeking to attain customers who don’t work or dwell close to a bodily location.
“For those who don’t have a Crunch close to your property or work, we’d such as you to take part with our model digitally, as a result of we’re coming to your city over the subsequent couple of years. We’ve acquired one other 1,000 of those plots to open,” Rowley says, noting Crunch’s many signed franchise agreements for added health club areas.
Breaking New Floor With Amazon
The health club of the long run additionally figures to be tech-enabled. Crunch appears to have already got a leg (or hand) up on its opponents on this space. Earlier this yr, the health model made waves when it partnered with Amazon One to permit members at choose Crunch areas to swipe their palm over a biometric reader to enter the power reasonably than use a key fob.
That kind of keyless entry tech has been trialed at Entire Meals Markets and sports activities venues, however by no means earlier than at a health facility.
“I used to be a little bit involved at first that we had been too small for this behemoth of an organization, however they’ve handled us like we’re the most important firm on the planet,” Rowley says.” There’s a real partnership with Amazon, and the spirit of that partnership is displayed in how they’ve rolled out the Amazon One product in our golf equipment facet by facet with us.”
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For Crunch, it’s one other occasion of assembly members the place they’re.
“It’s for the security and safety of the members, nevertheless it additionally permits us to run smarter within the gyms by way of permitting members to have entry, in order that the individual working the entrance desk can actually be on the forefront of member service,” Rowley notes.
Crunch and Amazon plan to deliver the hand-entry tech to extra gyms in 2024.
“I might take a look at 2023 extra as a check of what’s potential, and 2024 as a full rollout with Amazon,” Rowley shares.
What’s Subsequent for Crunch
In 2024, Crunch will have fun the thirty fifth anniversary of its founding in 1989, however in some methods, the corporate is simply getting began. It solely started franchising in 2010, and has been on an enlargement tear ever since, opening over 450 areas throughout the nation, with a rising presence within the Southeast and Southwest specifically. Because of that success, Crunch earned a spot because the top-ranked health model in Entrepreneur journal’s 2024 Franchise 500 listing, which ranks corporations based mostly on elements together with progress, model energy and monetary stability.
With greater than 1,400 franchise licenses bought, much more Crunch gyms are within the pipeline
“Our plan for 2024 is to extend our progress price most likely by 20 to 25%,” Rowley says. “It’s going to be the most important yr of our firm.”
Crunch can be aiming to succeed in 3 million whole members sooner or later in 2024.
Trying even additional forward, given its present gross sales numbers, Rowley believes Crunch may someday attain 1,500 areas within the U.S., and double or triple that quantity when taking worldwide enlargement into consideration. (Crunch already has a presence in Canada, Spain, Portugal, Costa Rica and Australia).
As Crunch continues to pursue its enlargement plans, Rowley has some pleasant recommendation for onlookers.
“Maintain on to your hat for what you’re going to see within the subsequent 5 years,” he says.
