interviewinterview
team in the franchise business – there’s a lot of relationship building that goes on, creating trust with the potential franchisee and making good on that. ”
franchisee support Delivering on promises and supporting franchisees is clearly all-important to Midgley. “What I love really about the business is the sort of personal relationships you end up building with the franchisee. That’s really important to me. I have a very strong belief in terms of doing the right thing for the people you sell to, whether it’s a health club membership or a franchise. “Most franchisees currently buy closer
to fi ve units, but we do have people who buy just one, and in a lot of cases they will invest a signifi cant portion of their personal assets to get the business up and running. You learn about these people through your conversations with them – about their family, their dreams… It becomes a very good relationship, and very rewarding to help them become successful in their own business. “Next step up the ladder are the
people who buy two or three clubs – maybe they’re already a health club operator with higher priced clubs, and they want to buy some of their own low-cost clubs to protect their brand. “Then you get up into area developers,
which is generally a more sophisticated group with deeper fi nancial resources, infrastructure, real estate acumen – they can roll out clubs a little quicker. “So there are many different levels of
relationships, with different dynamics, but each is equally important and fun. And it’s vital to focus on those relationships, because as a franchise company, your best opportunity is to help make your franchisees as successful as possible.” Although Crunch provides extensive support to its franchisees throughout
the relationship, with clear guidance from above, at the same time it is open to receiving feedback and suggestions.
“We take the philosophy that we’re 80 per cent rigid, 20 per cent fl exible,” says Midgley. “A lot of franchisors say ‘do it our way: that’s the only way’, but there are lots of great ideas out there. I think a franchise has to be open to learning and allowing a bit of fl exibility, letting people test things out to see if it can make improvements across the network. “Because the fi tness industry is
evolving – it’s always going to evolve – and you have to be able to evolve with it. There are different ways to programme, different ways to interact, different things to do with technology, different ways of integrating with the community. We want to make sure we have open ears the whole time. If as a businessperson you get to the point in your career where you think you have all the answers, I believe you’ve already missed the broader picture.”
an open mind Looking at the industry as a whole, what does Midgley see as its strengths, weaknesses, challenges, opportunities? “I think what’s good about the industry
is that it’s always trying something new, trying to fi nd different ways to get people involved. But it’s an uphill battle to get people off the couch and taking
The Crunch Franchise model is described as “80 per cent rigid, 20 per cent flexible”, offering scope for franchisee feedback
their health seriously, and we need to be more open to changing in different ways – not just evolving our offering in our clubs to try and get more people in, but actually looking beyond our four walls. We have to go out and promote ways just to get people to do some sort of activity, and in the end we’ll all benefi t. “I believe we need to rethink the way
we approach politicians too. Rather than being too prescriptive in our recommendations and requests to them, we just need to focus on getting them engaged in exercise. If that happens, and start to appreciate its value, I believe they’ll work out a way to get it into legislation.” And how about the opportunities for
Crunch Franchise? “Mark [Mastrov] has set a target of 300 clubs in fi ve years, which would be great. But I’m not one to put big numbers out there. My day-to-day is about looking after our franchisees. If we do that well, really who knows what the number could be.”
healthclub@leisuremedia.com kate cracknell
Functional Fitness Specialists Functional Fitness Specialists
Functional Fitness Specialists Functional Fitness Specialists
WW:
WW: sal@jojrordanfi tnsescso..o. T s:alesesj@jrordanfi tnsescso.o.
E: s: E www.w. danfi tne s.
..cukuko.uk E: E sal@o danfi tne s.
: T 94 5 880 T: T 94 5 880
: www.w. danfi tne s. :alesesj@ danfi tne s. 0:1 01954 880252757
0:1 01954 880252757
jojrordanfi tnsescso.o. ojrordanfi tnsescsocuk
.cukuk .cukuk
Educating, Innovating and Creating Functional Fitness and Freeweight Equipment across the globe Educating, Innovating and Creating Functional Fitness and Freeweight Equipment across the globe EXCLUSIVE SUPPLIER EXCLUSIVE SUPPLIER
Educating, Innovating and Creating Functional Fitness and Freeweight Equipment across the globe Educating, Innovating and Creating Functional Fitness and Freeweight Equipment across the globe EXCLUSIVE SUPPLIER EXCLUSIVE SUPPLIER
MEMBERSMEMBERS MEMBERSMEMBERS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88