Crunch Fitness

Crunch Fitness is a chain of over 300 franchised fitness clubs located in the United States, Canada and Australia. Founded by Doug Levine in 1989, its current CEO is Jim Rowley.

Crunch Fitness
TypeFranchise
IndustryHealth club
Founded1989
FounderDoug Levine

History

Crunch was founded in 1989 as a fitness studio by Doug Levine, a former stockbroker.[1][2] The clubs became successful by appealing to young upscale members and by selling logo merchandise.[3]

Ownership

Bally Total Fitness bought Crunch in 2001 for $90 million in cash and stock.[4] Initially intending to double the size to 40 gyms, Bally found the business unprofitable and was unable to get out of long-term leases in poorly performing locations. In 2005 Bally's sold Crunch to Angelo, Gordon & Co., a private equity firm, for $45 million. In May, 2009 the chain filed for bankruptcy, as part of a reorganization by which it was acquired by New Evolution Fitness Company ("NEFC"/New Evolution Ventures), a company founded by Mark Mastrov (founder of 24 hour fitness), fitness Veteran Jim Rowley and some of the Angelo Gordon principals.

On July 1, 2019, it was announced that private-equity firm TPG was acquiring Crunch Fitness through its growth-equity unit.[5]

Crunch is led by CEO Jim Rowley. Keith Worts is CEO of the company's Signature business and Ben Midgley is CEO of its franchise arm.[6][7][8]

Group fitness classes

The clubs offer an array of group fitness classes, including stationary bike workouts, Pilates, Yoga, and Zumba. Initially, Crunch Fitness featured some unusual classes such as bicycle-based yoga, coed wrestling, an "Abs, Thighs and Gossip" class run by a drag queen, and (unusual in 1997) pole dancing and capoeira.[2] Although the classes were later standardized across various locations, some popular offbeat classes remain, such karaoke bicycling,[1] Pound,[9] Antigravity Yoga,[10] among others.

Memberships

The company has two categories of gyms: Signature and Franchise. Crunch Signature locations are clubs with monthly memberships that typically range from $85 – $130, mainly located in major metropolitan areas, which offer a wider array of services, classes and amenities than a standard franchised Crunch Fitness location.[11] As of 2019, 30 of Crunch's locations were Signature gyms.

References
  1. Wendy A. Lee (2009-07-29). "The Trapeze, the Catwalk, the Gym". The New York Times.
  2. Edward Lewine (1997-11-30). "The Fitness Gurus". The New York Times.
  3. Constance C. R. White (1996-06-16). "Crunch Inc.: Marketing a Gym, as Well as a Way of Life". The New York Times.
  4. "Bally Plans to Purchase Crunch for $90 million". The New York Times. 2001-10-16.
  5. Kang, Jaewon. "TPG to Buy Gym Chain Crunch Fitness". WSJ. Retrieved 2019-07-01.
  6. "Jim Rowley, Crunch Fitness Intl Inc: Profile and Biography". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2019-09-04.
  7. Fitness, Crunch. "Crunch Fitness Appoints Keith Worts To Chief Executive Officer". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2019-09-04.
  8. "Tips From The Top: One On One With Ben Midgley, CEO of Crunch Franchise - Thrive Global". thriveglobal.com. Retrieved 2019-09-04.
  9. "Drum Your Way Fit With Pound At Crunch". It's Amanda Lauren. Retrieved 2019-09-04.
  10. "AntiGravity Yoga a fun approach to fitness". Reuters. 2011-03-28. Retrieved 2019-09-04.
  11. "No Judgments | Crunch Fitness". www.crunch.com. Retrieved 2019-09-04.
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