Viva Leisure’s franchising arm, Chain Collective Group, has just relaunched the Rebalance fitness business with the goal of franchising in key locations.
Gordon Martin, general manager, Chain Collective Group, told Franchise Executives, “This is very similar to what we did with Plus Fitness. The brand is a couple of years old, it was not meeting consumer expectations, so we redesigned it.”
Rebalance operates in the Pilates, reformer, yoga and barre space and there are eight studios across ACT, New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.
Edgy new look for relaunched Rebalance
“We’ve gone a bit more edgy and bold to reach a broader spectrum of consumers. We are trying to remove ourselves from the pigeonhole of Pilates for the older generation. We’re modern and vibrant and can appeal to men and women of all ages.”
A sleek modern logo replaces Rebalance’s red and orange branding. The new logo is designed to convey a sense of movement and energy with a new bold colour scheme echoed throughout the studios.
Facilities now include state-of-the-art equipment to offer members efficient workouts and classes have been updated to appeal to a broader customer base.
New franchise models tested
The brand reboot extended to the franchise agreement. Rebalance was originally a franchised model when Viva Leisure bought it, but only operating company-owned locations.
The decision was made to fix up the brand, and create proof of concept for two models: a single site operation and an investor model for multi-studio ownership.
“We’ve tested the multi-site ownership model in Queensland with one person looking after several studios. In the ACT we built a studio and opened it as a single site under management. It broke even in three weeks,” Martin said.
“We wanted to understand if the numbers stack up.
East coast expansion
“We now we have the franchise documentation ready. The expectation is the yoga Pilates boutique space is a growth market, so we looking to target the eastern seaboard aggressively,” he said.
The Rebalance studio offer is open to Plus Fitness operators. Franchisees can boost their business with a complementary fitness offer in the same territory.
“We know the Plus Fitness model is complementary, the two brands work hand in hand,” Martin said. “We will probably start to see multi brand operators.”
Tech systems support franchisees
Investment in a Rebalance studio is from $200,000.
Chain Collective has implemented AI platform ‘KeepMe’, which empowers franchisees to increase revenue at every stage of the membership journey.
“We are proud to also provide franchisees with a bespoke, company-owned data and performance software system, The HUB. Not only does this solution drive accountability and productivity, but it also provides an abundance of valuable insights and analytics to franchisees,” said Martin.
