How Burn Boot Camp Supports Franchisees Between the Margins
Partnership
Sponsored By Burn Boot Camp
Burn Boot Camp gives franchisees everything members need, and then some, with its variety of add-on features
When you’re one of the industry’s fastest-growing boutique fitness brands with 350+ locations, sometimes it’s easy to forget the little things — but not for Burn Boot Camp.
The strength and high intensity interval training (HIIT) gym, born out of a gymnastics studio parking lot, knows how impactful the things adjacent to your unique selling proposition can be. That’s why it delivers them to franchisees with the same level of thoughtfulness and care as it does with workout regimens and other original membership offerings.
Referred to as “add-ons” for franchisees, these amenities include nutrition supplements, activewear, Burn Boot Camp meals, and the Burn Boot Camp app featuring Burn On Demand. Activewear, the brand’s apparel line based on the needs and trends of the fitness industry, and Afterburn, the brand’s first protein powder headlining its nutrition department, both launched in 2016. Ignite, a pre-workout powder came a year later, followed by Afterburn bars in 2020.
Burn On Demand, a platform offering live content that permits remote exercise anywhere on the free Burn Boot Camp app, debuted in 2020 as well. Meals, a food distribution service with 20 breakfast, lunch and dinner options that underwent a 900+ person taste testing process, followed in September of this year.
While each add-on represents a different kind of asset for franchisees, they all come together to make fitness easier for operators to facilitate and members to enjoy.
Motivated to Help Members From the Jump
Like many of Burn Boot Camp’s initiatives, the brand’s interest in elevating the member experience inspired the original implementation of these add-ons.
“It’s all relative to the member experience,” said Amber Burke, COO of Burn Boot Camp. “If we have a good member experience, then we are re-earning the opportunity to ask members to spend money at every single Camp, every single location, on every single day. Quality products help foster trust that enhances their results, maintains their ability to stay in camp, reduce injury and be involved in the community.”
Amber Burke | credit: Burn Boot Camp
“So when you’re looking at it from a franchise partner perspective, all of these different options say that we want to be connected to members,” Burke went on. “We want to solve a problem that they might have. Like if someone has enough creatine in their diet, but struggles with general meal planning, then meals are a great resource.”
Burn Boot Camp is eager to make all this available to franchisees, removing the need to acquire similar products or services from outside sources. Everything comes from the top down — and the brand wouldn’t want to have it any other way.
“We want to promote a complete and healthy lifestyle, but we also want to be the source of that,” said Burke. “I don’t want them to go to other providers if I can provide it for them, so that’s what we do.”
Insurance for Revenue
Aside from the benefits that stem from increased member satisfaction, franchisees can use add-ons as safety valves to protect their bottom lines.
According to Burke, Burn Boot Camp’s franchise AUV right now is “just north” of $640,000. While a location’s membership sales represents the foundation for that figure, add-ons establish secondary revenue streams, ready and able to slide in as supporting pillars for locations when called upon.
“The money that someone pays for Camp is almost always going to be the main driver, but the ecosystem of meals, powders, activewear and Burn On-Demand all facilitate an opportunity to diversify where a franchise partner incurs revenue from,” Burke explained. “If there’s a slight decrease in members coming in, those are levers that we can teach our partners to pull to maintain that gross operational revenue month-over-month. That adds to our AUVs throughout the year, so we look at it as maintaining the focus on our core product and what we do.”
There have even been a few instances of add-ons bringing in funds entirely on their own, specifically with Burn Boot Camp meals. This creates opportunities to increase profitability both in the immediate and long run.
“We actually have a significant number of people — people that are non-members — that are purchasing meals,” said Burke. “So reverse engineering lead opportunities to membership conversion is an opportunity there, which is great.”
Filling a Void
From its origin point, Burn Boot Camp has also kept female fitness consumers top of mind. The boutique started as a female-only gym, and although it’s evolved to now welcome everyone, it still focuses on empowering women in the gym and supporting them with a sense of community. The brand’s add-ons only further these efforts.
Looking at nutrition, specifically Afterburn, Burn Boot Camp gives members a wide variety of protein supplement options. With roughly 80% of Burn Boot Camp’s member population being female, it was important for the brand to deliver on this front which the industry at large sometimes doesn’t.
“Protein is one of the most important macronutrients for anyone that’s doing exercise,” said Burke. “With women not getting enough quality protein in their diets to fuel them, our programs and our workouts became heavy in protein and strength.”
Afterburn packs a serious punch in this regard with 23 to 30 grams of protein per serving, depending on whether or not you use plant-based powder or not. Afterburn bars have 17 grams of protein each as well.
Burn Boot Camp also accommodates women before workouts with Ignite, the aforementioned pre-workout supplement. The powder carries a fraction of the amount of caffeine you’d find in a standard energy drink, making it a healthier addition for any woman of a gestational age.
Creatine for women represents another somewhat untapped corner of the fitness market. Burn Boot Camp addressed that as recently as this year along with collagen, dropping powders for each.
“It’s important for hormonal balance, skin, hair, nails, as well as just muscle development and muscle maintenance,” said Burke. “This really rounded out our powders, making sure that those two elements are added to diets for our women.”
This all comes as a way to further Burn Boot Camp’s unique franchising approach, which prioritizes a strong relationship between the franchisor and its franchisees. Any future add-ons or other franchising initiatives developed by the brand will do the same.
“There’s always something next, which is exciting,” said Burke. “The evolution of our processes have just continued to get better, and ultimately, that results in that franchise partner first model of revenue generation — that makes sure what we do is impactful for you as a franchise partner for years to come.”
This article originally appeared in ATN’s Fitness & Wellness Franchise Outlook Report, which explores the essential questions that can help determine if a franchise aligns with your personal and professional aspirations. Download the free report.