Anytime Fitness

Anytime Fitness
Private
Genre Fitness
Founded 2002
Founders Chuck Runyon, Dave Mortensen, and Jeff Klinger
Headquarters Woodbury, Minnesota, USA
Revenue $967 million
Website Official site

Anytime Fitness is a 24-hour health and fitness club. The company operates over 3,000 franchised locations in 20 countries.[1] The gym facilities are open 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year.[2][3] Chuck Runyon, Dave Mortensen, and Jeff Klinger founded Anytime Fitness in 2002. Runyon is the CEO of the company.[2][4] Anytime Fitness is based in Hastings, Minnesota.[2][5] According to Forbes, Anytime Fitness was the fastest growing health club franchise in 2014.[6] In 2015, Entrepreneur Magazine ranked Anytime Fitness first on its global franchise list.[7]

History

Anytime Fitness gym in Minnetonka, MN.
An Anytime Fitness at Bridgewater Place, Leeds, England.

Runyon, Mortensen and Klinger first met in the early 1990s while working for a fitness club in St. Paul, Minnesota.[8] In 1995, they jointly purchased and ran Southview athletic club for seven years.[8] During their ownership of the club, its membership rose from 500 to 4000. They sold the gym in 2001.[8] During their ownership of Southview athletic club, they worked for a consulting firm focused on improving underperforming athletic clubs across the United States.[8] They developed the idea for Anytime Fitness after surveying the expectations that long-term members of large gyms had for their fitness clubs.[8]

Chuck Runyon, Dave Mortensen, and Jeff Klinger founded Anytime Fitness in 2002.[5][9][10] Eric Keller, a former employee of Southview athletic club was interested in their business concept and agreed to become the first franchise owner of Anytime Fitness.[8] They provided Keller with support in choosing a site location, marketing strategies, equipment selection, and membership sales.[8] The first franchise location opened in Cambridge, Minnesota later that year.[11] They chose the site because of the lack of other fitness clubs in the immediate area and a population large enough to support a fitness club.[8] Shortly after, two more locations were opened by former Southview athletic club employees in Duluth and Albert Lea, Minnesota.[8] Runyon, Mortensen and Klinger sold 29 franchises before they opened their own corporate-owned location in Bemidji, Minnesota.[8]

In February 2005, Anytime Fitness opened its 77th club, the first location outside of the United States, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. By 2012, the franchise had opened locations in Australia, Canada, Grand Cayman, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, New Zealand, Qatar, and the United Kingdom.[8]

Jeff Klinger left Anytime Fitness in 2009 to pursue other interests.[4]

In November 2012, Anytime Fitness bought Waxing the City, a small chain of waxing and hair removal salons.[12][13] Runyon and Mortensen converted Waxing the City into a franchise model similar to Anytime Fitness.[13]

The company hired celebrity tattoo artist, Jimmy Hayden to tattoo its purple running man logo on nearly 200 franchisees, corporate employees, club managers, and personal trainers at an annual conference in 2013.[14] Hayden is also an Anytime Fitness member.[15] The company estimates that more than 2,000 people have the tattoo, including Runyon.[16] Mike Gelfgot, a personal trainer, received the first tattoo when he accepted a dare to get the purple running man logo tattooed on him permanently at a conference.[17] Anytime Fitness provides a tattoo artist at its monthly training events and covers all expenses.[17] The company will reimburse anyone who submits a photo of their tattoo of the logo and describe why they wanted the tattoo.[15] The tattoo typically costs around $100.[15]

In December 2013, Anytime Fitness purchased a 38-acre site in Woodbury, Minnesota to build new company headquarters.[18] Roark Capital Group acquired a large minority share in Anytime Fitness in March 2014.[9] Erik Morris and Steve Romaniello, two directors from Roark, joined the board at Anytime Fitness after the acquisition.[19] Mortensen and Runyon remained the company's primary holders and continued to run the business.

In November 2015, Anytime Fitness opened its 3,000th club in Stroud, Gloucestershire.[1][20]

Operations

Anytime Fitness corporate offices in Hastings, MN.

As of 2015, Anytime Fitness had over 3,000 gym locations and 2 million clients.[21][22] Each location is open 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year.[19][21] Members have secure access to facilities including unstaffed hours with a computerized key fob.[23] There are gym locations in all 50 US states, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland, Grand Cayman, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, Qatar, India, Chile, Japan and Singapore.[21] In 2012, the company had 120 employees.[24] Approximately 100 of them were located in Hastings, Minnesota.[24] 75% of the Hastings employees worked directly for the company while the other 25% worked for ancillary businesses Provision Security /> Provision Security supplies clubs with surveillance systems

Technology

Anytime Fitness launched their website, Anytime Health in 2010. The company developed an app for the website in 2011. The app is available to members and serves as a platform to download workouts, track food, and interact with other users.[25]

Awards

In 2010, the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association named Anytime Fitness the fastest growing fitness club. Franchise Chatter titled Anytime Fitness as the franchise with the best business model in 2011.[26] The Star Tribune called Anytime Fitness one of Minnesota's top workplaces in 2011, 2012, and 2013.[27] The company ranked first in Minnesota Business Magazine's best company to work for in 2012 and 2013.[28] Forbes ranked the company 14th as America's most promising companies.[29] In 2014, Entrepreneur Magazine ranked Anytime Fitness number one on their franchise 500 list.[30][31] In 2015 and 2016, Anytime Fitness was ranked first on the publication's top global franchises list.[32][33]

References

  1. 1 2 Cave, Andrew (December 31, 2015). "America's Biggest Fitness Club Franchise Aims to Be Not Just For New Year Resolutions". Forbes. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "Anytime Fitness". Forbes. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  3. ↑ Andrew Kade. "Survival of the Fittest". Business in Focus. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  4. 1 2 Stuart Goldman. "Klinger Leaves Anytime Fitness". Club Industry. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  5. 1 2 "Company Overview of Anytime Fitness, Inc.". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  6. ↑ J. Maureen Henderson. "Meet The Boomer Father And Millennial Son Building A Fitness Franchise Empire". Forbes. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  7. ↑ "2015 Top Global Franchises". Entrepreneur. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Fran Howard. "Anytime Fitness: The Fastest-Growing Club". Twin Cities Business. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  9. 1 2 Neal St. Anthony. "Anytime Fitness secures 'significant' investment from Atlanta firm". Star Tribune. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  10. ↑ "Anytime Fitness". Crunchbase. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  11. ↑ Tim Harry. "History and review of Anytime Fitness gym". Living Healthy 360. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  12. ↑ Ed Stych. "Anytime Fitness buys hair-removal company". Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  13. 1 2 Rob Olson. "Co-founders of Anytime Fitness buy waxing chain". Fox 9. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  14. ↑ John Vomhof Jr. "Anytime Fitness hires Lebron's tattoo artist to ink franchisees". Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  15. 1 2 3 Susanna Kim. "Gym Chain Anytime Fitness Offers Reimbursements for Tattoos of Logos". ABC News. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  16. ↑ Smale, Will (July 16, 2014). "Would You Get a Tattoo of a Company Logo?". BBC. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  17. 1 2 Ed Stych. "Anytime Fitness fans show their passion with tattoos". Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  18. ↑ John Vomhof Jr. "Anytime Fitness to build new HQ in Woodbury". Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  19. 1 2 John Vomhof Jr. "Anytime Fitness lands private-equity investment". Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  20. ↑ "Working Out Well: Chuck Runyon on the Rise and Rise of Anytime Fitness". British Franchise Association. December 24, 2015. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  21. 1 2 3 "Anytime Fitness Receives Investment from Roark Capital Group". Reuters. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  22. ↑ Ewen, Beth; Kaiser, Tom; Upton, Nicholas; Weingartner, Nancy (January 2016). "20 to Watch: What's Trending in 2016". Franchise Times. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  23. ↑ Rebecca Omastiak. "Anytime Fitness Receives A "Significant" New Investment". Twin Cities Business. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  24. 1 2 Rebecca Omastiak. "Anytime Fitness: Still The Fastest-Growing Fitness Co.". Twin Cities Business. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  25. ↑ Daniel Tao. "The Netflix Of Gyms? Why Anytime Fitness Thinks The Future Of Gyms Is Online". Forbes. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  26. ↑ "Franchise Chatter's 10 Franchises with the Best Business Models (and 1 with Possibly THE Worst)". Franchise Chatter. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  27. ↑ "Anytime Fitness Inc". Star Tribune. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  28. ↑ "100 Best Companies to Work For 2013: Large Companies". Minnesota Business Magazine. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  29. ↑ "America's Most Promising Companies: The Top 25". Forbes. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  30. ↑ Jason Daley. "Meet the Top Franchise of 2014". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  31. ↑ Ashley Scoby. "Anytime Fitness Ranked No. 1 on 'Franchise 500' List". Club Solutions. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  32. ↑ Herold, Tracy Stapp (12 July 2015). "The Top Global Franchises". Entrepreneur Magazine. Entrepreneur Media, Inc. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
  33. ↑ "2016 Top Global Franchises". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
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