Menzies led a full-scale rebrand of Snap Health, positioning the 24/7 health club franchise for enlargement throughout North America, Europa and Asia
Ty Menzies successfully took over as international CEO of Snap Health and mother or father firm Carry Manufacturers proper when the pandemic hit in March 2020. Regardless of operating a whole international health club operation from his kitchen in Australia, Menzies helped steer the model via COVID earlier than piloting a full-scale rebrand designed to carry Snap into the trendy, post-pandemic health period.
4 years later, the Minnesota-based franchisor of 24/7, no-frills gyms is prospering each domestically and internationally. Snap Health at present counts 1,000-plus international areas, together with massive presences within the U.S., Australia and the U.Ok., with plans to turn out to be even larger throughout Europe, the Center East and Asia.
Menzies spoke with Athletech Information about how he received his begin in health franchising, Snap’s large rebranding effort, and Snap’s plans for continued home and worldwide franchise enlargement.
The next dialog has been calmly edited for readability and size.
Athletech Information: Are you able to inform us a bit about your background in health franchising?
Ty Menzies: I come from a household of restaurateurs, so I at all times needed to have my very own enterprise at some stage. I studied sports activities administration at college and received into private coaching. I went from private coaching to a gross sales position after which moved to the U.Ok. the place I turned a membership supervisor at a Gold’s Fitness center in London. That was actually my introduction to operating a franchise and enterprise administration. I beloved it; the gentleman who recruited me for that position was John Treharne, who turned founding father of The Fitness center Group.
I used to be lucky sufficient to have a bit of cash in my again pocket right now, and I used to be in a position to borrow some extra to purchase my first franchise with EFM Well being Golf equipment Australia, which is a smaller boutique practical coaching idea, much like F45 and BFT. I ended up with three EFMs throughout Melbourne, Australia, and I additionally purchased two impartial gyms, which I changed into 24/7 golf equipment. I ran these for fairly a while earlier than promoting most of them in 2014.
ATN: How did you get entangled with Snap Health and Carry Manufacturers?
TM: I wound up having a dialog with the then-master franchise house owners for Snap Health in Australia and New Zealand who had been primarily based out of Brisbane, and I stepped in to run the Snap Health enterprise there. In April of 2018, we bought the grasp franchise rights for Australia and New Zealand again to Carry Manufacturers, and I turned the CEO of the Asia-Pacific (APAC) area for Snap Health.
In early 2020, our international CEO left and I mainly took over in March 2020. My first few months had been very attention-grabbing as a result of I hadn’t but been introduced as the brand new international CEO (Menzies was formally named International CEO of Carry Manufacturers in Could 2020) however I used to be navigating our international response to COVID from my kitchen bench in Australia. We had been working in 20-plus international locations and over 40 states within the U.S. I lastly made it to the U.S. in June 2020 and actually began diving into the worldwide enterprise. 4 years later, it’s been a reasonably important experience, together with COVID and a spread of different issues we’ve needed to navigate.
ATN: As soon as the mud settled from the pandemic, what main modifications did you implement at Snap Health?
TM: After I stepped into the worldwide position, I knew we needed to undergo a technique of repositioning the Snap Health model. We recruited a brand new head of promoting who got here to the enterprise with important model technique expertise in hospitality. We then introduced on a consulting agency to essentially begin understanding who our members had been. What we discovered was attention-grabbing: customers within the U.S., Australia and the U.Ok. are very comparable in what they need.
We additionally noticed a really homogenous well being and health business – the way in which we speak about train may be very efficiency and bodily led. The whole lot we had been seeing was before-and-after images, “more durable, quicker, stronger” and “no ache, no achieve.” That’s very performance-driven language which will be fairly daunting for lots of people who’re new to the health club area.
ATN: With these findings in thoughts, how did Snap Health rebrand itself?
TM: We noticed a possibility to reposition Snap Health completely, specializing in train from the attitude of the way it makes you are feeling, not simply the way it makes you look. This included not only a change of emblem and coloration scheme, however a change of our go-to-market technique, our communication to the top client, and a change in our tagline from a really performance-driven, “Quick, Inexpensive, Handy,” to our new tagline, “For the Feeling.”
We additionally modified the feel and appear of our golf equipment to be lighter and extra uplifting. When somebody walks right into a membership, for instance, our desks are actually raised larger in order that when any new potential member is available in, they’re seeing somebody at eye top moderately than sitting down at a desk. We’ve received partitions up in our golf equipment with good-mood messaging that affirms that “For the Feeling” aspect.
ATN: How else does Snap Health stand out from different gyms, significantly these which can be additionally open 24/7?
TM: It’s not a lot in regards to the facilities. The fact is in case you put a model new Anytime Health proper subsequent to a model new Snap Health, the bodily attributes of the golf equipment are each going to be very good, they’re each going to have nice gear and so they’re going to be properly fitted out. Most individuals would like to work out in both of them. We’ve all been to eating places the place you stroll into one restaurant versus one other and each have nice meals and nice services. The place you’ve the very best expertise comes all the way down to who has the very best customer support, in order that’s been an enormous a part of what we’ve centered on and the way we’re educating our franchisees and membership managers.
ATN: How is Snap Health positioned for worldwide success?
TM: Snap Health at present operates in 18 international locations. In six of these, Canada, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, the U.Ok. and Eire, we personal and drive instantly ourselves, which means we don’t have any grasp franchisor. That’s in contrast to our rivals within the market who’ve sometimes bought grasp franchise licenses in different areas. We even have direct workplaces in London, Minneapolis and Brisbane the place we now have Carry Manufacturers workers who’re instantly supporting our franchisees.
We do have international locations – in Europe, the Center East and Asia – the place we now have grasp franchisors. However now that we now have direct workplaces in each the U.Ok. and Brisbane, we will instantly assist our grasp franchisors and their franchisees of their devoted time zones. That’s so much higher than making an attempt to assist them instantly out of the U.S. workplace.
ATN: How large can Snap Health turn out to be, each domestically and internationally?
TM: We’re at simply over 1,000 areas at this time, with round 550 within the U.S., round 340 in APAC, largely in Australia and New Zealand, and round 130 throughout the EMEA area, largely within the U.Ok. and Eire.
We’ve very large development targets throughout the board – between now and 2028, we anticipate near 1,300 areas. Final 12 months, we had our greatest 12 months of franchise gross sales since 2012, with 77 new licenses bought, the vast majority of which got here out of APAC and EMEA. We’re additionally beginning to get transferring throughout the U.S. once more. We’ve received a lofty objective of promoting 82 to 83 (licenses) this 12 months.
ATN: Carry Manufacturers, which absolutely owns Snap Health and Health On Demand together with minority stakes in different manufacturers, is exploring a sale. Why is Carry seeking to discover a new proprietor?
TM: We’re predominantly personal fairness owned, and personal fairness at all times has a horizon when it comes to buy-and-sell timing, normally it’s 5 to 6 years. Our personal fairness investor has been with us for round 10 years now, so it’s the correct time for them to exit. I’m excited in regards to the alternative to usher in a brand new, energetic investor who can actually get behind a few of these methods for development I wish to drive.