Some interesting things happened in 2009. Planet Fitness corporate sold the World Gym brand to private investors. The new owners are taking a new approach with World Gym, focusing their efforts on revamping the brand. They have some very good ideas about how to rebuild the World Gym brand into one that grow in the future while still paying homage to its past.
I'm sure the image to the left caught your eye! Well that is one of the images WG is using in its more edgy advertising. Now you might be wondering where this leaves the 1440 All Axcess clubs ... and I've sort of wondered the same thing. In fact, it looked to me as though these smaller footprint clubs wouldn't really have a place within the WG brand once they moved fully into this new brand image. And I think that is evidenced by the fact that when you visit WG's corporate site, there is no mention of the ability to purchase a franchise of the 1440 brand.
At the same time, I don't blame the new owners. After all, at the end of the day, how much money can really be made on a fitness center of 5,000 square feet or less? Enough for an owner operator, but not a lot of money left over to pay a franchisor. For now, I'm just happy to be part of a brand that I think will be getting a lot of attention as the economy rebounds. Who knows, maybe the rebranding will even make its way into the smaller clubs, but that remains to be seen.
Stay tuned if you want to be kept in the loop about World Gym's rebranding effort...
