| IHRSA Report | Success by Association
The ‘Old’ is the ‘New’ Red-Hot Retrofitness is a throwback concept with a bright future
By Jon Feld E
ric Casaburi, founder of 1980s-themed Retrofitness, the Colts Neck, New Jersey, chain with four corporate stores and 72 franchised units, has been honing his fitness focus since he was 13 years old. “When I was in eighth grade, I had my mom get me working papers specifically so that I could work for my local gym membership,” he says. “I scrubbed toilets, mopped up, and did anything else I had to do to pay for my workouts.” After dropping out of college, he opened two
licensed clubs of his own at the age of 23. And he did well. He attributes his success then, at least in part, to prime location, with his clubs benefiting from solid walk-in traffic and not a great deal of local competition. While he was busy growing his two clubs,
Casaburi also began earning what might be called a “hard-knocks MBA.” “I loved learning about business in general and
was fortunate enough to partner with a CPA,” he explains. “He represented a range of different businesses, so I took the opportunity to learn about how purchase-and-loan agreements worked in
different types of environments; about the correlation between marketing budgets and traffic; how to create and use predictive models; how to develop the systematic manuals that became the predecessors to the operations manuals we use today, etc.” Among the key lessons Casaburi learned was that
he didn’t need to license from someone else. One night in 2004, shortly after the birth of his daughter, Carmela, Casaburi found himself up late, scribbling in what he calls his “million-dollar idea notebook.” He began outlining the concept that would become Retrofitness, including what he wanted to see in an ideal customer, considering copyright issues, the development of intellectual property for marketing a Retrofitness facility, etc. “As I was assembling the data and mulling over
the concept, I realized that, while I started out thinking we could attract the GenX crowd, I realized that, if we provided a high-quality experience coupled with a low price point, we could attract almost anyone.” That night (or early that morning), Retrofitness
was born. The clubs, which generally average 10,000-15,000 square feet, are decked out in bright red and yellow color schemes with checkerboard floors; pump ’80s hits through their speakers; show the decade’s popular sitcoms on the clubs’ LCD TVs; screen movies like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Sixteen Candles in their Retrofitness Theaters; and even market the clubs using the phone number 867-5309, made indelibly famous by ’80s one-hit wonder Tommy Tutone. The throwback membership price is $19.99 a month. Since Casaburi re-bannered his two clubs as
Retrofitness in 2005, average club traffic has grown to 600-1,000 members a day. The typical club has about 6,000 members, with some closer to 8,000. Retrofitness began franchising the following year. In 2008, Casaburi partnered with Chicago-based
Eric Casaburi 98 Club Business Internat ional | MAY 2011 | www.
ihrsa.org
private equity firm Lake Capital, and the company has been growing in leaps and bounds since. System- wide revenues were approximately $40 million in 2008, a jump of 82% over the previous year. In 2010, Retrofitness revenues climbed to $57 million, and Casaburi projects sales between $75 million and $80 million for 2011. The company has about 150 units in development right now, with a three- year goal of 300 clubs in operation.
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