---
title: "9Round Ranked by Franchise Times Among Top 10 Smartest-Growing Franchises of 2020"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/23d69059-4223-4af8-b70e-40a6a7a686aa
source: "Franchising.com"
original_url: https://www.franchising.com/news/20200117_9round_ranked_by_franchise_times_among_top_10_smar.html
category: "Boutique fitness"
industry: "Fitness"
segment: "Boutique fitness"
published: 2020-01-17T12:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T22:33:28.907Z
image: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1517836357463-d25dfeac3438?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop
---

# 9Round Ranked by Franchise Times Among Top 10 Smartest-Growing Franchises of 2020

**TL;DR:** 9Round Franchising, LLC was ranked eighth among top franchises by Franchise Times in 2020, with a 137% increase in systemwide sales and 73.1% increase in locations. The company has been included on the list for the third consecutive year, with nearly 800 locations open and operating throughout 42 states and 20 countries.

*originally published in Franchising.com on 2020-01-17. [Read the original](https://www.franchising.com/news/20200117_9round_ranked_by_franchise_times_among_top_10_smar.html).*

## Story

GREENVILLE, S.C. - 9Round Franchising, LLC, was recently ranked eight out of 40 franchises included on Franchise Times magazine’s 2020 Fast & Serious list. This is the third consecutive year 9Round has been included on the list.

Franchise Times magazine’s annual Fast & Serious list ranks the 40 smartest-growing franchise brands over a three-year period. 9Round earned its place on this year’s list by experiencing an increase in systemwide sales by 137 percent and locations by 73.1 percent to finish 2018 with $142 million in gross revenue. This rapid growth helped contribute to 9Round’s record-setting year in 2019 as the brand entered its 20th country.

“The last few years have been a remarkable time of growth for 9Round, and it’s an honor that we’re being recognized for a third consecutive year as a franchise that’s growing ‘smarter, not harder’,” said Shannon Hudson, Founder and CEO of 9Round. “We realized early on that in order to withstand success, you have to fight the temptations to take a step back and relax a bit when things are going well. Despite our rapid development, we’ve never lost sight of the importance of growing our team and hitting our next milestones and in turn have continued to increase our revenue and production capabilities.”

Franchise Times developed the Fast & Serious List using a 10-point formula, which analyzes growth per franchise in percentage sales, percentage units, dollar sales and numerical units over the past three years. The publication utilizes the Franchise Times Top 200+, an annual ranking published in October of the largest franchise systems by revenue, as a database to determine the Fast & Serious rankings. In order to be considered for the ranking, the franchise must have systemwide sales of over $40 million.

Founded in 2008 by professional kickboxer Shannon Hudson and his wife, Heather, 9Round is a specialized fitness center that brings kickboxing fitness training to the average person in a convenient, affordable, 30-minute, full-body circuit format. The program is developed around a proprietary and copyrighted system of nine challenging workout stations developed by Shannon himself. Today, there are nearly 800 9Round locations open and operating throughout 42 states and in 20 countries including Canada, Costa Rica, Australia, Argentina, Guatemala, India, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mexico, Ecuador, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

## Entities

- Franchising.com (publication)
- Fitness (sector)
- franchise ranking (topic)
- Franchise Times (publication)
- fitness franchise (topic)
- 9Round (company)
- Shannon Hudson (person)
- systemwide sales growth (topic)

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Originally reported by Franchising.com (https://www.franchising.com/news/20200117_9round_ranked_by_franchise_times_among_top_10_smar.html). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/23d69059-4223-4af8-b70e-40a6a7a686aa).