Page 82 - Entrepreneur - USA (January - February 2020)
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THE            FRANCHISE






































































                        Planet Fitness

              7

                         STARTED FRANCHISING  —                —                      —
                                               2003        TOTAL UNITS
                                                                                            $1.1M–$4.2M
                                                                     1,859        COST TO OPEN
         EIGHTY PERCENT of Americans            The company reaches its             For the low-cost model to
         don’t have a gym membership.        target customer with bargain         succeed, the company keeps
         That’s bad for the health of the    pricing (basic memberships           its own costs in check. “We
         nation, but it’s good for Planet    cost $10 a month) and the            don’t have pools, we don’t          Unlike many gyms, Planet
         Fitness’s bottom line. The New      promise of acceptance                have classes, we don’t have         Fitness retires all its cardio
         Hampshire–based gym fran-           (the gym calls itself a              instructors to pay,” Rondeau        machines after five years and
         chise has built a seemingly         “judgment- free zone”). And          says. “We run our stores with       weight machines after seven,
         foolproof business by going         the plan works: In five years,        15 people.”                         and every 10 years, each loca-
         after customers often ignored       Planet Fitness memberships             What comes next? More             tion undergoes a full remodel.
         by the fitness industry: the         doubled from seven million           growth, says Planet Fitness. It     “It all keeps driving sales for our
         newcomers.                          to more than 14 million.             had 1,859 locations as of last      franchisees,” Rondeau says.         PHOTOGR APHS COURTESY OF PL ANE T FITNESS
            “Forty percent of our mem-       “People who love to work             July, and with a steady flow of      That’s also making investors
         bers had never belonged to a        out will spend $150 to join          first-timers coming in, it wants     happy: Its third-quarter 2019
         gym before joining Planet           CrossFit or Orangetheory,”           to double that figure in the         results showed a 7.9 percent
         Fitness,” says CEO Chris            says Rondeau. “But for most          years ahead. The company is         increase in same-store sales,
         Rondeau. “We’re really going        people, working out is a             also as committed to self-          leading to a jump in stock price.
         after that casual first-timer.”      need to do, not a want to do.”       improvement as its members.         —STEPHANIE SCHOMER



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