Wow - now this is interesting. World Gym is selling to the gym chain called Planet Fitness for over $10 million dollars. You remember Planet Fitness, the chain that was in the news for it's interesting 'No Grunting Allowed" motto. And they actually kicked a member who for grunting too loud. Wow - amazing. But true.
But no question that Planet Fitness is successful, with 20 new locations coming soon, and about 160 locations at the moment around the United States. They have an interesting model. No salespeople. Low pressure tactics. It looks like Mike Grondahl, the founder of Planet Fitness, has a different way that is working for his clubs.
But Planet Fitness isn't for the hardcore, or even moderate bodybuilding. No dumbbells over 80 pounds allowed here. We don't want you here. We cater to the average person.
So what is going to happen to World Gym? No one is sure, at the moment. Will they convert them to Planet Fitness? Will they escort out the ones who make too much noise, get rid of the heavier weights. At the moment, the World Gym locations will be a separate division. These two types of gyms will exist side by side. To those who worry, World Gym will not change into Planet Fitness, but get some update on its creativity and other things that made Planet Fitness successful.
And it was even brought up that once you reach a certain level at Planet Fitness, you can move to the more hardcore World Gyms now. Nice.
