interviewinterview BEN MIDGLEY
The president of Crunch Franchise
believes the low-cost model is eminently
sustainable. He talks to Kate Cracknell
about added value in the budget sector
and the importance of supporting your franchisees
B
en Midgley, the president of Crunch Franchise, is a contented man. “I couldn’t think of a better job,” he
says. “Maybe if you’re a movie star or something like that, but really I couldn’t be happier.” He continues: “I work with people
I trust without question and the work I do is very rewarding. When you franchise, it brings in all kinds of different aspects: you’re not just confi ned within the four walls of the club. You have to know everything about the process, from fi nding real estate to getting someone fi nanced to doing budgeting and marketing. You have to know the whole thing, because you have to teach people every day. It’s fun to bring people through that process.” As you might expect from someone
who’s responsible for guiding new franchisees into the industry, Midgley has been in fi tness his entire working life. “I love the industry,” he enthuses. “I grew up in it.” Starting off at Gold’s Gym while a student, cleaning equipment and
helping out around the club, Midgley then progressed through the ranks. In 1995 he won IHRSA’s Salesperson of the Year award which, he says, put him on the radar. He was recruited by 24 Hour Fitness, where he worked as senior director of corporate sales and where he fi rst met Mark Mastrov (see HCM Jan 11, p32). Around nine years later he became executive vice president of Planet Fitness in the US, before taking a six-month career break: “I think I went about two years without taking a day off, and my third child was going to be born. I was getting a little burnt out and decided to step away from the business.” The break recharged his batteries
and his enthusiasm: “I re-engaged with Mark [Mastrov] and Jim [Rowley, CEO of Crunch] in 2009 – in my opinion they’re the fi nest business people in the fi tness industry and I was thrilled to work with them. They’d just bought Crunch and had decided they wanted to do a franchise venture, which I came onboard to head up. We launched about a year and a half ago.”
“WE’VE TAKEN THE COOLNESS OF THE CRUNCH BRAND AND ITS ADVERTISING, BUT WE’VE TONED IT DOWN A BIT”
30 Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
Franchise companies’ best opportunity is to make their franchisees as successful as possible, says Midgley (above)
brand adaptation The 23 Crunch clubs owned by Mastrov and Rowley’s company, New Evolution Ventures (NeV), are high end, with a strong brand renowned for its creativity and innovative group classes. How does the franchise offering compare? “We’ve taken the coolness and the
fun of the Crunch brand, but we’ve toned down the offerings a bit because we’re a low-priced offering. We’re in the US$19.95 a month space, whereas the Crunch-owned clubs charge an average of US$69 a month. “Also, Crunch is fairly edgy. They grab
the attention and get a lot of PR – pole dancing classes and so on… things that are at the cutting edge of group fi tness. That gives it a strong brand presence and as a result everyone thinks the company is much, much bigger than it is. “That edginess works in the big cities,
which is fi ne because Crunch focuses on metropolitan areas, but we designed the franchise model so we could put it anywhere in the country. We take the coolness of the brand and the cleverness
february 2012 © cybertrek 2012
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