As iconic fitness brand Crunch celebrates its 35th birthday, CEO Jim Rowley tells HCM about building it up from the ashes and his aspirations to make it a global brand.

Rowley and Mark Mastrov were brought in by investment firm, Angelo Gordon, in 2009 to bring the then 36-strong chain out of bankruptcy. It was losing money and lacked marketing, sales and operational processes, but the team believed the brand could succeed if it was operationalised and systemised.

“We felt its culture and reputation were among the best in the industry,” says Rowley. “The identity, the logo, the name, the incredible New York reputation and heritage. It had an amazing reputation for its irreverance, cheekiness and sarcastic marketing. It had a sense of fun where so many other gym brands were boring.”

Once the operating structure was put in place, the brand was franchised in 2010. Having dropped to 28 clubs during the bankruptcy process, there are now 470 clubs across 41 US states, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Portugal and Spain and a new club is being opened every week.

“The business has come up from the ashes. We’ve spent the last 15 years rebuilding and are now celebrating 35 years with three million members and system-wide revenues north of US$1 billion,” says Rowley.

Now owned by private equity firm TPG, there are big plans going forward. Three franchising heavyweights have been headhunted from in and outside of the fitness sector to drive the business forward: John Kersh formerly of Anytime Fitness and Xponential; Molly Long from 7-Eleven and Chequan Lewis from Pizza Hut.

“We’ll get to 500 gyms open by the end of this year and expect to average 100 openings a year for the next five or so years. We’ll also enter several new international markets in the next two years," says Rowley. "We only really launched internationally this year, but once that gets up to speed, we’ll accelerate to 150–200 openings a year.

“Our three-year plan includes a lot of initiatives that will benefit not only us as the franchisor, but also our franchisees, team members and members. I always consider all four angles; when everyone wins, the reward is exceptionally better and lasts much longer.”

The full interview will be available in issue 11 of HCM magazine, out in December.