Executive Q&A with Tom O’Keefe, President of REGYMEN Fitness

REGYMEN fitness is unlike anything that exists in franchising right now. As fitness trends lean more toward boutique and niche offerings now is the perfect time for REGYMEN to emerge as the challenger brand. REGYMEN fitness is a high-energy studio with three platforms: Burn, focusing on cardio and weights; Box, focusing on power punching and core work; and Build, focusing on compound movements and explosive cardio.

With the constantly evolving programming, even within the three platforms, there is so much variety within the model that is capturing the attention of consumers, and we’ve built the infrastructure to ready the brand for major franchise growth.

• March 2017: Tom O’Keefe, formerly of Anytime Fitness, Smoothie King and Ruth’s Chris, is hired as President.

• March 2018: Regymen opens its first company-owned location in Pensacola. More than 400 pre-sale memberships were sold.

• March 2018: A second company-owned location opens in Baton Rouge.

• June 2018: A third company-owned location is opened in Baton Rouge.

• September 2018: Nick Binnings, formerly of Another Broken Egg, is hired to lead franchise development efforts.

• November 2018: The brand’s first franchised location will open in Austin.

• November 2018: The first studio that adheres to the new prototype, which has the typical three platforms, but provides franchise owners the flexibility to add on additional platforms, and create different programming within each platform, opens in Baton Rouge.

• Early 2019: Two additional corporate locations are slated to open in Baton Rouge.

What plans does the brand have in the coming years (to highlight momentum)? What does an ideal franchisee look like?

REGYMEN has a goal of hitting 100 studios by April 2021. The brand is naturally appealing to folks that have experience running a fitness business, or are fitness minded. But, we’re also looking for the more sophisticated business person who has the ability to build businesses, and if we have a large franchise group with experience in operating restaurants, for example, we would require them to have an operating partner who has that fitness experience.

We are targeting qualified franchise partners with industry experience and the capital to do a minimum of three studios in Austin, Dallas, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, Atlanta, Orlando and Tampa, to start. The initial investment range for a REGYMEN Fitness is $425,000 to $870,500. The brand will offer 20 percent off the franchise fee for military veterans, as well as a $10,000 discount on the franchise fee through March 2019.

Other brands in the space have paved the way and created brand awareness for boutique HIIT studios creating demand for this type of franchise that REGYMEN? is able to fill. We have territory available across the U.S.

We have a required $30,000 spend on a pre-sale marketing campaign aimed at creating a baseline of revenue for our franchisees on the day the studio opens.