Under the direction of CEO Andrew Alfano, Retro Fitness takes pages from the playbooks of food giants like Starbucks and McDonald’s and infuses them with modern ideals of fitness.
The world’s largest companies often do two important things: create a strong brand ethos and execute on a solid business plan.
Retro Fitness is confident that it ticks both of these boxes. Under the leadership of CEO Andrew Alfano, the high-value, low-price (HVLP) fitness brand has invested in a massive rebranding effort and bolstered the franchise with best-in-class leadership.
A former Starbucks executive who helped build a once fledgling coffee brand to global fame now believes Retro Fitness is the next big thing.
“It’s at least a 1,000 club system domestically and we have international aspirations,” Alfano tells Athletech News. “We are actively looking for financial partners to take this journey with us.
Retro Fitness currently has about 200 locations open or in development, and there are encouraging signs that it can deliver on Alfano’s lofty vision, including getting buy-in from one of the world’s largest investment firms.
Rebirth of a brand
Founded by health and wellness entrepreneur Eric Casaburi in 2004, Retro Fitness quickly built a strong following in its home state of New Jersey, the surrounding states of the Northeast and Florida.
The mega-gym brand became known for its vibrant red-and-yellow color scheme, tanning services and a wide selection of fitness equipment, all at low prices.
Alfano, who took over as CEO in 2019, felt it was time for a change.
“Even McDonald’s doesn’t use red and yellow anymore,” Alfano said, referring to the need for brands to sometimes turn away from once-successful marketing tactics. “When was the last time you saw Ronald?
Under Alfano’s watch, Retro Fitness has embarked on a full-scale rebrand, moving away from red and yellow as the dominant colors in favor of a more minimalist, modern aesthetic.
Apart from the recently launched color palette, the newly opened Retro Fitness clubs are modern in every sense, with communal meeting spaces, beautiful furniture and large, turf-filled functional training areas.
“When old gyms were built, the first thing you did was walk up to the check-in desk, which is very uninviting,” Alfano explains. “When you walk into our clubs, the first thing you see is an outdoor area where you can sit and catch up on email or drink a smoothie with friends.
Retro Fitness’ newly built clubs all have a remodeled vibe, while older clubs are gradually incorporating some of the rebrand into their existing facilities.
There are early indications that the new brand is attracting new customers, namely women. Before the rebranding, membership at the typical Retro Fitness gym was skewed by 66% men. In the redesigned clubs, female members make up about 50% of gym goers, according to the brand.
“If you want to be competitive, you have to appeal to as many people in the community as possible,” Alfano says of the rebrand.
Brand Building: Taking a Page from Starbucks
The rebranding of Retro Fitness extends beyond the physical look and feel of the clubs.
“I came from a company like Starbucks and really came at it from a consumer brand relationship perspective, not just joining a gym,” says Alfano.
To increase consumer engagement, the brand has tried to incorporate Retro Fitness into all aspects of a healthy lifestyle, from lifting weights and doing cardio to much, much more.
Inside the fitness center, members can recover from a workout with the latest wellness techniques like red light therapy alongside traditional favorites like massage chairs and tanning beds.
Equally important, according to Alfano, is what happens when members leave the club. To top things off, Retro Fitness offers a variety of content through its app, including fitness classes as well as nutrition, mental wellness and music content.
“It can’t simply be our weights vs. your weights or cardio vs. cardio,” Alfano explains, noting how difficult it is for gyms to differentiate themselves that way. “So we really build a community within the four walls of our club, and more importantly, we become the community outside the four walls.”
Creating community: Inside project lifting
At the center of Retro Fitness’s community-building strategy is Project Lift, an initiative that could change the face of America’s fitness landscape if all goes as planned.
Announced in 2022, Project Lift will see Retro Fitness and its investor partners open potentially hundreds of gyms in predominantly black and brown communities across America.
Alfano says Retro’s leadership team came up with the idea for Project Lift after understanding the disproportionate impact the COVID-19 pandemic was having on black and brown communities, who suffered from pre-existing conditions like obesity at higher rates than other groups of Americans, and were therefore more vulnerable. for damage and death caused by the virus.
From the outside, a Project Lift club looks like any other Retro Fitness location, but the economics are a little different. At Project Lift clubs, Retro Fitness waives the franchise fee and also donates a portion of its franchisee royalties to a community organization for the life of the fitness business.
Interestingly, Project Lift gyms are open for free to the entire community on Friday evenings, giving non-members the opportunity to improve their fitness and well-being.
Last year, the BlackRock Impact Opportunities Fund signed on to open at least 80 and as many as 100 Project Lift gyms across Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Southeast Florida and Queens/Long Island, New York.
“Our goal is 500 Project Lift locations in 50 cities over the next five years,” says Alfano. “That may sound significant, but when you think about what BlackRock has committed to, 80 with the hope of doing 100, we really need (only) four more (investors).”
Franchise Basics: Best-in-class support
On the business side, Retro recently brought on franchise and licensing vet Larry Strain to serve as its chief development officer.
Like Alfano, Strain is a former Starbucks executive who played a key role in the coffee brand’s early growth. He also has experience growing brands including McDonald’s, Dunkin’ and Potbelly Sandwich Shop, among others.
“I don’t know of any franchisor in the world today that provides the kind of support that Retro Fitness offers,” Strain says of Retro’s hands-on approach to franchising, calling it a “turnkey” solution for franchisees.
“This is not only disruptive to the fitness industry; it’s disruptive to the entire franchise industry,” he adds.
According to Strain, Retro Fitness offers a robust suite of development services to its multi-unit partners, including managing relationships with in-house brokers, handling market analysis and site selection, offering in-house design services and overseeing the construction of new clubs.
Once a lease is signed, the support continues: Retro’s corporate office assigns franchise business coaches who work with franchisees in the early stages of getting their clubs up and running, including extensive pre-sales support as well as staff recruitment and training support.
Shops Beware? The case for HVLP Gym dominance
It’s worth noting that Retro Fitness isn’t the only HVLP fitness brand looking to aggressively expand, so it has some competition.
Crunch Fitness is approaching 500 locations, opening new clubs at a rapid pace, while brands like EoS Fitness and Vasa Fitness are also putting up impressive numbers of late. And that’s to say nothing of HVLP giant Planet Fitness, which continues to work with Gen Z as it reaches 20 million members.
Still, despite the seemingly saturated nature of the low-end fitness market, Strain believes there’s plenty of white space for certain HVLP brands to open even more locations, provided they appeal to the right types of consumers.
“The Planet Fitnesses of the world have done really well and really peaked at their audience that they’ve marketed to and defined their brand to,” he explains. “But there’s a large middle- and upper-middle-class group of people out there whose only access to fitness today is through a boutique like Orangetheory or CycleBar.”
HVLP fitness brands like Retro Fitness can step up and take off, Strain says, as they can offer the benefits of boutique fitness offerings—small group classes and a premium feel—along with offering a larger selection of equipment, access to diverse spas, and a number of other amenities.
“We have the ability to go into those markets that are flooded with stores and take that market share away relatively easily,” believes Strain.
For Alfano, there is no better horse to back in the great HVLP race than the renewed, refreshed Retro Fitness.
“If you’re going to be in the gym, you want to be at a great value, low price, for a lot of reasons,” says the Retro Fitness CEO. “And if you’re going to be in expensive, low prices, we’re the darling of the street right now.”
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