Byline: BRIAN McCORMICK
While health clubs tout amenities like personal trainers and spa services, a new player is pumping energy into the market with a no-frills 30-minute regimen designed to appeal to time-pressed women.
Curves International, based in Waco, Texas, has opened 110 women-only storefront exercise parlors in the area during the past two years. When another 40 open later this year, the Chicago-area franchise market will be virtually sold out. Most Curves locations are in the suburbs, but some franchisees are opening costlier city spots.
While big local players like East Bank Club; Lakeshore Athletic Clubs; Fitness Formula Inc., which operates Multiplex Clubs, and Bally's Total Fitness Holding Corp. aim to exploit the latest exercise trend by expanding free-weight rooms, adding spin classes and building rock-climbing walls, Curves takes the workout downmarket.
The 1,000-to-2,500-square-foot facilities offer a 30-minute circuit workout that alternates strength training on hydraulic resistance machines with cardiovascular intervals. The low-tech gyms usually consist of eight to 12 machines interspersed with running pads, and women move from one station to the next.
'Years ago, I joined a Chicago Health Club and a Women's Workout World, but I never stuck with it,'' says 53-year-old grandmother Sandy DeLaurentis, who was working out at a Carol Stream Curves last week.
Founder and owner Gary Heavin, an evangelical Christian who promotes Curves with missionary zeal, opened the first storefronts 10 years ago to attract customers in rural areas who were older, less buff and less affluent than the traditional health club target market.
Since then, he's built Curves into a formidable force in the fitness industry, recruiting an estimated 2 million members through about 6,000 independently owned franchises in North America. In comparison, Chicago-based industry leader Bally claims 4 million members at about 450 corporate-owned clubs.
Simplicity has appeal
Some experts say Curves' explosion represents a lost opportunity for fitness firms that increasingly are stepping on each other to compete for the high-end customer while ignoring a huge untapped market. A Bally spokes-man says that while the company may go after the Curves market in the future, it's a niche that doesn't fit with Bally's current full-service formula.
Low cost has helped lure customers to the no-frills Curves-the clubs don't have showers, for example. Membership, originally priced at $29 a month, now costs $39 at most locations. That compares with monthly fees of $100 and up at full-service fitness centers in the area.
But fitness gurus say that another key feature-the simple workout that can be completed in a half-hour-is also resonating with harried urbanites.
'The most frequent reason cited by people who don't exercise is lack of time,'' says Cedric Bryant, chief exercise physiologist at the San Diego-based American Council on Exercise. Curves eliminates that excuse. And while Mr. Bryant says a subset of Curves customers will eventually seek a more strenuous workout, for millions of women, the 30-minute resistance workout is enough to keep them fit.
While local franchise owners are confident about the long term, they acknowledge that the concept, which muscled its way into the suburban market and outlying city neighborhoods without breaking a sweat, is getting a more strenuous workout as it cracks the downtown Chicago market.
Many of the outlying locations drew 750 or more members within months of opening. But as Curves rolls out in more-affluent urban neighborhoods like Wrigleyville, Lincoln Park and Streeterville-where the first downtown Chicago location is slated to open this week-owners are seeing stiffer competition.
In addition to getting by with smaller membership rolls because of the competition, the city Curves franchises are being hit with dramatically steeper rents.
'We definitely face a more formidable task in the city,'' says Michael O'Connor, who opened a Lincoln Park Curves in April and a Wrigleyville outlet in June.
But he points out that because his clubs are a destination for users, he doesn't require the more expensive, high-visibility storefronts that other retailers covet. For instance, his Lincoln Park location, at Armitage and Racine, is several blocks west of the area's prime shopping district.
'If I were on Halsted, I'd be paying 60% more for the same space,'' Mr. O'Connor says.
At the Lincoln Square location, which opened in February, Victoria Duran is content with her 328 members, hoping ultimately to boost that to 450. And she's not surprised that her suburban counterparts are growing much more quickly.
'The city Curves are located much closer to each other,'' she says. 'And there is much more sense of community in the suburbs, which generates a lot more word of mouth and buddy referrals,'' whereas she needs to market aggressively to draw any attention.
Like Mr. O'Connor, she hopes to boost profits by opening a second club, in the Uptown neighborhood, later this year.
`Phenomenal' grosses
Entrepreneur magazine earlier this year dubbed Curves the fastest-growing franchise operation in the U.S. and placed it second only to fast-food giant Subway among the most profitable franchises in the nation.
That growth is largely a function of Curves' low start-up costs-the $25,000 franchise fee includes delivery of eight machines-and build-out expenses are also usually modest.
The clubs can generate revenue through weight-loss classes and the sale of Curves-brand nutritional supplements, but the lion's share comes from membership dues.
'We saw gross revenues of $14,000 to $22,000 (per club) in May, which is phenomenal,'' says Dotty Hammond, the company's area service director for Chicago. Once clubs reach their peak memberships, she adds, those monthly grosses will more than double.
CAPTION(S):
30 minutes flat: Franchisee Victoria Duran operates a low-tech Curves location in Lincoln Square where women follow a prescribed workout on resistance machines with intervals to get the heart rate up.
