Anytime Fitness founders dumped the smoothie bars and boutique classes in favor of bare-bones facilities with 24/7 access. Their lean operation is about to go global.
Anytime Fitness Inc.
Business: 24-hour no-frills gym franchise
Founded: 2002
Location: Hastings
Employees: 60
Revenue: $15 million
Competition: Lifetime Fitness, Snap Fitness, Gold’s Gym International, 24 Hour Fitness and Curves International Inc.Anytime Fitness co-founders Chuck Runyon, Jeff Klinger and Dave Mortensen spied a bargain when the old Southview Athletic Club in West St. Paul came up for sale in 1995. The ’70s era gym – 40,000 square feet of pools, racquetball courts, saunas, steam rooms and moldy locker rooms – had dwindled to about 400 active members.
The Twin Cities natives plotted a makeover that would ultimately help them launch their successful 24/7 express fitness chain.
They’d been working together as fitness consultants, coaching gyms across the country on how to muscle up membership beyond their core fitness buffs. The Southview Athletic Club was the perfect opportunity for the men to put their money where their mouth was.
They paid $100,000, rehabbed the club and began operating it, gleaning important information along the way. Half their revenue was eaten up in payroll for the staff required to clean pools and maintain the facility. Big space meant big taxes and utility bills. Few members were using the pools, aerobic classes or day-care facilities.
Anytime Fitness chief executive Jeff Klinger said that around 1999 they started pulling members aside and asking them why they joined. The overwhelming answer, Klinger said, was simply that the club was convenient.
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