Leaders of Self Esteem Brands, parent company of Anytime Fitness, believe the company already is the biggest wellness franchisor in the world — and that's not nearly big enough.
The Woodbury-based company plans to increase its global footprint, currently about 5,500 locations in 40 countries across five franchise brands — Anytime Fitness, Basecamp Fitness/SumHIIT Fitness, The Bar Method and Waxing the City — to a combined total of 10,000 locations before 2030.
Self Esteem Brands co-founder and President Dave Mortensen, who launched Anytime Fitness in 2002 with CEO Chuck Runyon, envisions the company's current brands will drive 80% of that growth; the remaining 20% will come from brands acquired in the future.
This conversation with Mortensen has been edited for length and clarity.
Anytime Fitness kind of owns the globe, so it's winning the pace purely because of scale. It's a great product and it's going to continue to thrive and grow. Waxing the City is probably second-strongest brand in expansion. Hair never stops growing!
The focus is going to be equal across the board. One of the reasons that we've added other brands is because we probably have one of the largest international vehicles for franchising and great partners, who are also looking to add new brands to their portfolios.
Continuing to develop great relationships and partnerships and focus on our four pillars. Those pillars really, really simple:
But the real secret to expansion is finding the right partners. The biggest mistake most brands make is they commit to relationships that don't fit within their ethos, culture and environment.
I think you're going to see more international expansion, but I don't think our domestic expansion is going to slow down much. We still see incredible opportunity in the U.S., where we're just under 2,500 units open for Anytime Fitness alone and we believe there's space for close to 5,000. Knowing that, we have a lot of whitespace opportunities for Anytime, and the door is wide open globally for the other brands.
Obviously, health and fitness has been our bread and butter, but we're also looking at all the different avenues of personal care, like hair, nails, skincare or mental health. Wherever people are investing in themselves.
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