These 2 Multi-Unit Franchisees Grew During Covid and Look Forward to More

As the nation emerges from the pandemic, we asked two single-brand multi-unit franchisees about the biggest impacts of Covid on their business, how they’ve responded, and which changes they think will be permanent. Both did well during the pandemic and are looking to grow significantly in the coming years. *Jamie Weeks, 46, is the founder of Honors Holdings which operates 102 Orangetheory Fitness studios.

He is the brand’s largest franchisee.* What are the biggest impacts of Covid-19 on your business? With owning studios in 7 states (now 11, with recent acquisitions), the challenge of state-by-state regulations was difficult.

But the pandemic will be the single best thing that has ever happened to the company. The focus will be health and wellness for a long time, and it will be more important than ever. That’s our business and we are some of the best in the world at it.

How have you responded? We paid our employees through the pandemic, even hourly people. We did their average comp and continued to pay them.

We then began acquiring studios over the last 90 days and have grown our portfolio of studios by 40% in 2021 and have no plans to slow down. What changes do you think will be permanent? I think the focus on fitness is about to be as permanent as any aspect of your life.

Cleanliness will be paramount for all fitness studios going forward. Again, this is great news for us as we are known to have the cleanest facilities in the world. *Jason Metcalf, 42, is president of Metcalf Coffee, which has 27 Scooter’s Coffee locations open and 2 more under construction.

His business partner is his mother Rita.* What are the biggest impacts of Covid-19 on your business? We had another record year in 2020, in spite of Covid.

I think having our drive-thrus stay open and having consistency endeared our customers more to us. Knowing they could trust the brand solidified our relationship. How have you responded?

We just followed the CDC recommendations to create a safe environment for both customers and employees. Doing that helped us remain confident to stay open and continue building that trust I just mentioned. What changes do you think will be permanent?

I wouldn’t necessarily call them changes, because we have always taken sanitation and cleanliness seriously. Going forward, I think it’s just continuing that emphasis. The great thing about our model is that there wasn’t much that had to be adapted.