franchisee sp tlight
Victor & Lynne Brick
2025 Issue 3 | GearedUp
Victor and Lynne Brick have been raving fans of Planet Fitness ® for years, which prompted them to open their PF ® franchise Ohana Growth Partners, previously known as Planet Fitness Growth Partners. However, the couple was not immediately sold on the idea.
The couple’ s interest in health and fitness started in college. They were both graduates of Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland. Victor Brick was a physical education major and a basketball coach, while Lynne was a shock trauma nurse and a dancer. While these professions were not directly related to owning a fitness business, their jobs helped them acquire the necessary skills to own a gym.
“ As a physical ed major, I knew anatomy and physiology and how the body worked. As a basketball player / coach, I knew about teamwork, leadership and culture. As a shock trauma nurse, Lynne came to health and fitness from a medical perspective,” said Victor, the executive chairman of the Board at Ohana Growth Partners and co-founder of Brick Bodies alongside Lynne.
After college, they entered the fitness industry in 1982 when they formed an aerobic dance company. In 1985, Lynne was pregnant with their second child, Jonathan, so she couldn’ t teach her“ normal” 22 classes per week. They couldn’ t afford to replace Lynne by hiring instructors, so she launched her instructor training program, which began in Baltimore but quickly transitioned to international. That same year, they opened the first of their own chain of full-service fitness clubs, Brick Bodies. Lynne taught the classes with her dancing background and performance skills and won the 1990 IDEA International Instructor of the Year Award. They grew the Brick Bodies brand to seven clubs over 20 years. However, they were always looking for the next great thing that was simpler, good and scalable. Eventually, they stumbled upon Planet Fitness.
“ We were always looking for‘ quantum leap’ but couldn’ t quite find the right fitness club model to scale, as we thought Brick Bodies was too capital and management intensive,” said Victor Brick.
Around this time, Lynne Brick, as a member of the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association( IHRSA) Board, attended a meeting in Boston, and Victor decided to join her and meet with a health club friend in Boston to check out a new gym concept called Planet Fitness. They were sure any club charging $ 10 a month for a membership could not be much of a
Lynne and Victor Brick, owners and operators of Ohana Growth Partners, place a huge emphasis on building strong relationships and family networks.“ Ohana” means family in Hawaiian.
club. However, they were shocked by the quality of the gym.
“ The place was clean, well-laid out, had the latest equipment, and was busy as heck. And the staff was very friendly. I looked at my buddy and said,‘ This place is an ATM machine. It’ s printing money.’ I knew Lynne and I had to get in on the action, and I knew we had to‘ go big or go home!’ or we would regret it,” said Victor Brick.
The Bricks eagerly put in an offer on a 32-club ADA in Maryland, one of the largest ADAs in the system at the time. To raise enough capital for the endeavor, they partnered with friends Terry and Jerry Woods, Chuck Cavolo, Glenn Norris and Earl Ihle.
“ I wanted to call the company Villains, Thieves and Scoundrels Union but our banker squashed that idea, so we called ourselves Planet Fitness Growth Partners. How boring,” said Victor Brick.
Founded in 2007, Ohana Growth Partners quickly grew into one of the biggest franchise groups in the system. Today, it has clubs in Maryland, Washington, D. C., Florida, Tennessee, Washington, California, Michigan, Wisconsin and are partners with BravoFit and Dallas Rosekelly in Australia. The franchise group has been recognized for its success, winning the 2013 inaugural Franchisee of the Year and the 2014 and 2015 Developer of the Year for opening the most clubs each year.
No matter how big the franchise group has gotten, the couple never lost sight of the people who made the company successful. Family is very important for the Bricks, and they strive to treat their employees as family. A few years ago, to reflect that value, they changed their franchise business name to Ohana Growth Partners –“ Ohana” means family in Hawaiian.
Ohana Growth Partners and the Bricks focus on providing the Ohana team has opportunities and a path for the future. One of their top business goals is to ensure that their staff experiences strong career growth.
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