Scaling With Intention: Inside Fitness World Canada’s Franchising Plan with CEO Chris Smith

How do you scale a fitness business without losing focus?

In this episode of All Things Fitness and Wellness, Chris Smith shares how Fitness World Canada is approaching its next phase of growth, including plans for franchising and continued corporate expansion. The conversation focuses on the structure behind the strategy, the role of the team, and what it takes to prepare a fitness business for scale.

Chris walks through how the franchise model is being developed, what the organization is looking for in franchise partners, and how operational readiness factors into long-term growth. Rather than theory, this episode offers a practical look at how a multi-club operator is thinking about expansion in today’s fitness industry.

If you’re a gym owner, operator, or executive interested in fitness franchising, business growth, or scaling with intention, this conversation provides real-world insight into the planning and execution behind expansion.

Connect with Chris Smith:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-smith-1874138/?originalSubdomain=ca
Learn more about Fitness World:  https://fitnessworld.ca 

#fitnessbusiness #gymbusiness #fitnessindustry 

Transcript

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we've been riding a rocket ship and it's been incredible and the growth has been great the business is very very healthy and so for us it's more about okay well then how scalable is that and can we replicate that can we duplicate that and then if you get to that question which is you say well yeah we think we can for sure from a corporate perspective and then you also start to examine like well what that what would that look like in the franchise world and is it franchisable this is all things fitness and wellness uniting industry thought leaders and fitfluencers on the mission to inspire innovation and encourage people to live a life fit and well today I'm joined by Chris Smith to talk through what's next for Fitness World Canada following the recent announcement around franchising and continued corporate expansion Chris walks through the thinking behind the plan what the business is building toward and how his team is approaching the next phase of growth we get into the structure of the model what Fitness world is looking for in franchise partners and how the organization is setting itself up to scale while staying operationally sound if you're interested in how a multi club operator is thinking about franchising in today's market this episode offers a clear look at the strategy and the work behind it before we get to it be sure to hit like and subscribe before we get to it be sure to hit like and subscribe we have new podcast episodes weekly featuring industry thought leaders and influencers I'm your host Chrissy Van and this is ATF W Chris Smith joining me on ATF W clearly you're no stranger to the show and also the man behind it yeah yeah I think the secrets out the secrets out but there are some other secrets that you had that now have recently gone public one's a project that takes place in this room and the other is all about expanding your business nationally so let's start with the big press release that came out what happened yeah I mean I just think the timing was right for us to kind of share you know the plan and strategically like what we've been working on over the last five years and just share the excitement right no need to keep it all private necessarily and from a franchising perspective certainly gonna be looking for the right strategic partners down the road so just giving people a heads up that you know that's where we're headed and this is what we're doing and just I think paints a picture of kind of where we're at and certainly the you know what lies ahead in the near term future well people in this industry are no stranger to you a you've worked in it for decades started as a personal trainer worked your way up to CEO and then six years ago now taking over a business taking it from bankruptcy turning it into this British Columbia behemoth that is now Fitness World with 17 locations tell me a little bit about what that growth journey has been like because the thing that I've noticed even working within these walls is how many members of your team have been long term by your side and there's an energy behind this growth that clearly you've fostered an excellent culture you know you kind of nailed it right culture you know I'm obviously a football guy I like to follow lots of different coaches and we're coming fresh off the heels of Indiana University winning the national championship and I've always been ruckers just didn't get there no ruckers your your big school out there in New Jersey didn't didn't quite make it this year but you never know you never know you never know I mean Indiana was an underdog story so they they are but I don't think we're gonna see ruckers there anytime soon even in even in the good old NYL era um no but I'm a big standards or the standards kind of guy and then even one thing I I mentioned the Indiana cause I I took away from even this this football coach there that it resonate with me which is you know habits build standards and standards build culture and so I think for me yeah there's just a lot of things I've done habitually over the years right that essentially have LED to what I would kind of define as kind of brand standards if you will which ultimately lead to the culture that I think creates the stickiness where people want to stick around it's the secret sauce or whatever you call it only it's not that secret it's just about discipline to process and kind of you know being the same person every day right so deciding that you're going to expand corporate stores as well as franchise why did you decide to go that road in particular yeah I mean we've been working on this for a couple years now right so this isn't new this isn't like hey I got an idea you know we've been working on it for a couple years now in terms of what would it look like and how would we do it and so forth and I've had a few people knock on the doors to kind of inquire to say hey you know would you be interested in you know potentially selling you know the company and that sort of thing and then really just collectively the answer that was well no not really I think the reason for that is we've been riding a rocket ship and it's been incredible and the growth has been great the business is very very healthy and so for us it's more about okay well then how scalable is that and can we replicate that can we duplicate that and then if you get to that question which is you say well yeah we think we can for sure from a corporate perspective and then you also start to examine like well what that what would that look like in the franchise world and is it franchiseable and how do we think that would resonate with potential franchisees and so forth from a entrepreneurship you know perspective and whatnot and I think we got the answer of like yes it would do that as well and then from there you start to go okay well then strategically like if that's what we wanna do then tactically how we gonna manifest all that or go make it happen so then you start entertaining like well how would we fund this or how we fund that is it gonna be you know directly funded by just cash flow and balance sheet are we gonna want to you know do a partnership deal of some form that with private equity um do we want to just take out you know a bank loan and get bank terms and so on and so forth and so yeah you just examine all the different kind of avenues of how you want to go grow your business and for us that's what we did and went through that process and ultimately kind of came to the conclusion of what was the best right way for us to grow the business in a healthy sustainable way and just went to work knowing that you talk about the fact this has been a rocket ship and I'm sure we've already spoken many people once this announcement went out have been reaching out to you there's interest here so talk a little bit about the business itself as we kind of finalize certain documentation from an FDD perspective and so forth but yeah from an average unit value and AUV and looking at you know average revenues of call it 3.25 million per location um you know four wall ibadah of you know north of $925,000 on a per store average so you know those those are very attractive and those are some you know pretty healthy numbers and we think they line up well with you know a number of other groups that are out there doing franchise now right and so for us we think there's a great opportunity and certainly you know we're Canadian based and that's kind of the home base as as we sit now but yeah we have a growth plan that has a seen growing both across Canada and then certainly you know we're we're I in south of the border as well and I know that's not the only element that's been part of the success story of Fitness World what you've done with your personal training program is really such a strong example tell me a little bit about personal training and the revenue story behind that for your business I mean it's certainly part of it I mean it varies by location and I think that's definitely one of the things that differentiates us from maybe others in terms of a percentage of revenue that comes from you know the ancillary revenue or the personal training revenue and and some of those revenue streams so for us you know it could be as high as you know 30% of a club's monthly revenue might come from personal training right and you know on the surface people are like well man it must have a low dues rate no it means that club's doing you know darn near $200,000 a month in personal training and so it's it's not insignificant by any stretch um it's just a very healthy kind of ecosystem um in terms of what it does and what it drives right and again it's a secret but it is no secret right we have a system we have a process we have a plan we're disciplined to that plan we we we stay pretty true to it again back to Habert standards culture and all that stuff right but it is a big part of what we do for sure the the PT side of things you essentially took the words out of my mouth systems processes and plans that is part of your ethos so for yourself now you're fostering kind of the talent of the future in regard to who your franchisees are going to be so what are you looking for when it comes to partnering with some of these first individuals that decide to franchise a fitness world or a group of them that's actually the key right as we actually want to find folks that that's in fact what they want which is a group of them so I've obviously got great partners in the business now and then there's got some great kind of what I would call consultants and advisors that I've been again talking to for the last couple years to give me guidance on things to think about um pitfalls to avoid you know mistakes not to make that sort of thing so as we look at kind of the ecosystem of who we're looking for and who we want to engage with yeah it's just individuals that obviously have the right you know financial criteria and that's just kind of hopefully a check box for them then from there it's the right entrepreneur spirit and then hopefully it is people that really believe in it what it is that we do I can certainly appreciate that every entrepreneur wants to make money but we wanna make money a certain way we wanna do things a certain way with a certain kind of ethos and credibility behind you know definitely making a difference which is kind of our mission statement right changing lives constantly challenging ourselves from a vision statement perspective which is to be a next level fitness and wellness company so we don't want people that are like well I'm good with whatever and I just want to be and they want to rush the process like we if we're gonna get married to people which is what you're really doing from a franchisee franchise or perspective we want to make sure that we're finding the right people expanding on that what do you feel makes Fitness World so unique I definitely think it's a member's first mentality right and so as long as we continue to understand that that's the ethos or the bread and butter like that the customer right so what does the customer want what does the customer need and then even again taking a look in terms of what is the community need so again we're not a necessarily a what I would call a one stamp one size fits all type of operation right so we certainly can mold into different things in different communities meaning some clubs we have child mining some clubs we don't some clubs we have one you know call it group fitness classroom if you will some clubs we have two it just it varies some women's only like child minding like all the different amenities and service how much recovery we offer why we offer that much recovery I think we're a little bit flexible and nimble there and again we just try to not necessarily say like it's a one size fits all for everyone and just you know I think that's been something that's made us a little bit different and allowed us to have a little bit of a different I I don't know success or a rate of rhythm and then I think we've been ahead of the curve on a couple things too right so then I would just call that strength training functional training that stuff we've been doing it forever for forever when I say forever I mean for the 15 years that you know I've been in Canada and certainly when we rebranded the company as Fitness World we made a a a really even harder pivot into the strength training equipment and so that was a lot of additional platforms some of our clubs you know 10 Olympic platforms multiple leg presses and hack squats and booty building zones and just again cause and and the simple answer is well what if it's why it's cause that's what the customer wanted versus like no you can do it this way you can just do lunges put your foot up on a bench do do a Bulgarian lunge do a split squat this do that you can say all that and do all that but it's more about what do you need to have the best workout possible and then how do we fit our clubs to kind of meet the biggest demand possible from a franchising perspective what type of opportunities exist in the now I mean we we actually operate kind of three distinct models right now right we have trained by F W which is our you know what I would call turnkey simple solution kind of in the framework of very similar to that of you know the Anytime Fitnesses the Snap Fitnesses um not always staffless but mostly staffless anywhere from 2 to 6,000 square feet we put those into communities where we can't find a box that you know would generate the revenue or we can't just there's no available real estate for what we would call a typical kind of framework of an HLP club right and that's really the bread and butter would be those clubs right so those are the HBO p and that's kind of the standard kind of what we build and so forth so call it 25,000 square feet um give or take and then get modular nature in terms of what we build out how we build it out amenities services based on the community and all that and then lastly there's the signature concept which again the signature concept really only goes into communities where it really warrants maybe a higher rent because you wanna be in like an urban center and therefore the rents are going to be substantially higher and therefore that signature club might may or may not make sense our signature models typically come with different higher end services and amenities the way to think about that is again if you look at those higher end posh type clubs we feel like we're offering the same level of service if not higher at again maybe a third of the price point and so even from that perspective it's almost the HBLP of that category is maybe another way to think about it but again we're going to have all these different things available for franchisees right so again depending on what they want to do what community they're in what marketplace they're in different models might fit what it is that they're actually looking for and not only are we talking about you marrying with franchisees but you are you announced in the same announcement that you're doing corporate expansion so talk to me a little bit about the strategy there I understand that you already have some additional clubs in progress yeah I've been very active in the real estate market kind of both across Canada and then again taking a good look at just south of the border here and what's available to us and that sort of thing yeah I think for uh for me and for our business and as I've described kind of the strategy with our partners it's really around proof of concept and so a lot of times with potential franchisees it's like wow I hear you but your clubs are all in BC so does it really resonate does it translate does it do this does it do that so an easy take away for me is like well let's just go answer those questions and so you know in Canada there's probably no greater place for us to be than the Greater Toronto Area and so I don't think it's any secret that we're looking at you know around out there we've got a broker of record out there that's out knocking on doors and we've looked at I don't know 15 20 properties you know to date um not gonna give address or whatever it's a big city there's like 14 million people there uh lots of territory but I'm obviously not gonna go into the deets on that specifically but yeah we're we're out we're looking and so the idea is proof of concept and then down the road we'll either maintain them as corporate stores or possibly you know you could look at you know five year window say maybe you transact and you sell those to someone that is now a franchisee in that market as an example but it's really just to go out and prove what I believe I know which is our business translates kind of wherever we take it you've done a lot of this corporate expansion over the last couple of years and really just honing into this fitness world brand and making it quite iconic out here so I'm just curious what are the biggest learnings that you've had that you'll apply to this next phase we definitely wanna know what our North Star is in terms of again culture and who we are and what we wanna be but I think we're still evolving right so I don't think we're ever gonna get to a place that says again we we think we know everything um or the consumers obviously the dynamics there could change and demands might shift and just figuring out that again we've got flexible nimble spaces from a construction build out perspective where we can flex into kind of the needs of the business on on an as needed basis I mean a good example of this evolution will be this you know club that we have coming up this year in the Brentwood community um you know here in Vancouver BC it's gonna be 36,000 square feet it'll be our second signature location in the marketplace and it'll be second to nothing here in British Columbia it'll be it'll be a place that everyone's gonna wanna be we think it'll be a destination center so the build out um the amenities the services that we're bringing to that facility are are gonna be incredible can't wait to watch the journey but I think about conversations that we've had and I know that a lot of people listening know Chris Smith they've worked with you they've interacted with you through the decades but when you look back as like the guy that was destined for football and unfortunately that didn't work out so you have your dreams dashed and then you become a parent of all these kids raising a family growing a business at the same time moving up the corporate ladder then deciding to take on a business yourself how did you genuinely feel when that release goes out and you're like what does younger you think yeah when I saw it it was more of I think a moment of pride for sure to say like I'm proud of what we've built because again I think it's not about me it's about we and it's about the team that I have and I'm certainly always gonna recognize all their efforts and all their hard work cause you know while I do get the publicity and I get to be the public face of that's only because of a whole bunch of other people including my partners and everyone else yeah without question well if people are interested in furthering this conversation what are the best levers to pull right now because I know your Star North and going for this so yeah there's some basic information you know available on the website again we're still finalizing a couple details and more than not to come in the not too distant future but I mean I would just say LinkedIn is probably the easiest place to find me and so I'm there Chris Smith Fitness World Canada and yeah you can just reach out and just kinda ping me and chances are I'll accept the invitation and if there's a conversation you wanna have then we can talk you've just listened to the All Things Fitness and wellness podcast hosted by Chrissy Van be sure to hit like and 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