Through the Years
people wanted without the additional frills that drove the price up, and you have something that is palatable for anyone to try – $ 10 a month with no commitment, it really drops that barrier to entry.”
Combining price with atmosphere set the bar high for the competition. By the time the first knockoffs appeared in 2010, Planet Fitness had 400 locations and a healthy head start on other low-price, high-volume fitness entities.“ First of all, the competition didn’ t know how to deal with it. By the time they figured it out, oftentimes they were out of business. It forced the competition to adapt,” Mastrangelo said.“ Again, it took a few years for that to happen because most gym owners and most consultants were waiting for Planet Fitness to fall on its face. While they were waiting for that to occur, Planet Fitness was little by little getting some growth. The rest is history.”
The end result meant the fitness industry was a better place.“ As much as the knockoffs irk me, I must say that, as an industry, it’ s good to have this happen. It’ s made it affordable. It made people clean up their act when it came to marketing and bad cancellation policies,” Rondeau said.“ The industry needed it; the industry was just poorly run since its inception really.”
Staying true to what made Planet Fitness revolutionary will be what ensures PF maintains its position as a leader and not a follower.“ People like to say,‘ What keeps you up at night?’” Rondeau said.“ The one thing that keeps me up at night and the one thing we have always been extremely diligent about and kept our head focused on: We are different from the rest of the industry and it’ s to be very careful that, as we fine-tune the business, we don’ t let the industry persuade us to be like them. We have done things very differently than this industry. We never really followed the industry. That’ s what got us here. The fact that we have these franchisees under our wings that we can constantly test things, try things and hear ideas is an asset that we can utilize to continually and carefully fine-tune the business as we grow.”
LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE
Whether it was the introduction of the Black Card, TSG’ s entry into the system, rolling out rubber flooring or the first franchise conference in Orlando, each person in the system has a moment that stands out in their journey with PF. Rondeau’ s came when he turned the corner onto Wall Street in August 2015. A giant banner bearing the Planet Fitness logo hung outside the New York Stock Exchange.“ It was like,‘ Wow, we really did it,’” he said of the company’ s initial public offering.“ It put all of the efforts of myself and the original founders, the efforts of all of our staff, the efforts of all of our franchisees into one big pinnacle.”
Since going public, Rondeau has had the opportunity to meet with investors and analysts who study the company, forcing him to take a step back every once in a while to look at what PF has accomplished.“ You’ re so close to it, you can’ t see the forest for the trees. When you have these analysts and investors shake their head and smile and say,‘ This story is amazing. Everything you are doing, we rarely see this.’ We are all so close to it that we are like,‘ Every business is doing this well, right? All businesses grow like this, right?’” he said.“ I think we opened 5 million square feet of real estate last year alone. We occupy, what, 25 million square feet of real estate? We are doing $ 2 billion in revenue a year. It’ s like, whoa, 10 million members. When you kind of put that all in perspective, we are actually growing more in the health care
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Through the Years
1992 Founders Michael and Marc Grondahl open first PF in Dover, New Hampshire.
1993 Grondahl brothers hire Chris Rondeau to work the front desk.
1996 Planet Fitness introduces Tootsie Rolls at the front desk. Clubs originally offered a yellow, banana-flavored version until it was discontinued, along with the current grape and traditional chocolate flavors.
1997 The Judgement Free Zone ® is born.
1999 In Concord, New Hampshire, after a daylong shortage of hot water, PF ® thanked members for their understanding with free pizza. And, a tradition was created.
Sept. 1, 2003 Eric Dore and Shane McGuiness open first franchised location in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
2005 The PF Black Card ® was introduced.
2006 The 100th club opens in Logan, Utah.
2011 PF sponsors NBC reality show,“ The Biggest Loser.”
• The first location outside the continental United States opens in Carolina, Puerto Rico.
• PF launches the first national advertising campaign with the“ Lift Things Up” TV commercial.
2012 TSG Consumer Partners, LLC becomes an equity partner in Planet Fitness.
• 500th club opens in Morton Grove, Illinois.
2013 Michael Grondahl steps down from CEO position, and Chris Rondeau steps in.
•“ No Gymtimidation” campaign is unveiled. December 2014 PF opens first international location in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Becomes official fitness sponsor of“ Dick Clark’ s New Year’ s Rockin’ Eve” on ABC.
Aug. 6, 2015 Planet Fitness makes initial public offering( IPO). October 2015 Location in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, opens.
February 2016 Franchise was added to the Franchise Times“ Fast and Serious” list of top franchises, Forbes magazine ranked PF No. 4 in the Top 50.
• Over 90 percent of PF locations are opened by existing franchise owners.
March 2016 PF partners with STOMP Out Bullying and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America to launch the Judgement Free Generation™ program.
April 4, 2017 PF reaches 10 million members in 1,400 locations.
May 2017 TSG exits from Planet Fitness. July 27, 2017 Planet Fitness opens new headquarters in Hampton, New Hampshire.
Sept. 30, 2017 PF celebrates 25th Anniversary with Gala in Boston.
GearedUp | 2017 Issue 4
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