Several franchisors this masthead spoke to said the issues afflicting the parent company headquarters has had next to no impact on their operations which are operating as usual. But some owners have had to deal with questions from members about whether they are closing down.
“It’s not ideal, because it just ends up meaning that you’ve then got spot fires that you’ve got to put out where there’s no fire,” said F45 Blakehurst owner and head trainer Rodger Talevski.
F45 operates a franchising model that grants franchisees ‘territory rights’ to operate a facility in a designated location, rights to use the F45 brand, and plug into all of F45’s systems and processes. Owners pay a fixed monthly franchise fee to F45.
Talevski said the churn levels for F45 franchisees were “very, very low” compared to the industry standard, and noted that while the company had reduced its expansion targets down from 1500 new branch openings to 350-450, that the revised figure was “still phenomenal”.
“F45 dominated the market and was innovative, and a lot of those people that keep talking down the brand are the ones that are copying it or trying to just basically look for holes [in] why the brand won’t last,” he said. “I just see a full glass, not a half empty glass.”
F45, which has more than 1500 franchise centers around the world, listed on the Nasdaq in July last year $US16. Shares have since tumbled by about 90 per cent.
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The company last week said it now expects to generate underlying earnings of $US25 million for the year ending December 31, compared to previous forecasts of up to $US100 million.
High-profile Australian co-founder Adam Gilchrist (not the cricketer) last week resigned from the business.
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