WALTHAM, Mass. — Prospect Hill Growth Partners, L.P., a private equity firm focused on operational value creation in middle-market growth companies, today announced it has acquired a majority interest in Fitness Ventures, LLC. Headquartered in Orlando, FL, Fitness Ventures is one of the fastest growing franchisees in the Crunch Fitness system. Founded in 2016, the Company currently owns and operates Crunch Fitness locations throughout eight states in the U.S. with several more in development. Founder Brian Hibbard will retain a substantial investment in the business and continue to lead the company as its Chief Executive Officer. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.
“The team from Prospect Hill brings unparalleled experience in scaling multi-unit businesses across the U.S. With that experience, combined with their team’s alignment with our values and vision for the company, we could not be more excited about this new partnership,” said Brian Hibbard, founder and CEO of Fitness Ventures. “With five successful new openings in just the last few months, our management team has demonstrated the ability to maintain a rapid growth rate, all while executing on a strategy that continues to deliver industry leading results. We have a very deep and active pipeline of unique development opportunities. This new partnership with Prospect Hill and new access to institutional capital is going to allow us to seize on these opportunities at a faster pace, accelerating our overall growth rate and pushing to our ultimate goal of owning and operating 100 Crunch Fitness locations.”
Founded in 1989 in New York City, Crunch “The Original No Judgments Gym” is a leading health and fitness company. The company owns, operates, and franchises more than 325 fitness centers serving more than 1.5 million members across the United States, Australia, Canada, and Spain. With a range of membership options available, Crunch’s business model focuses on providing its members with a superior fitness offering at a compelling price point. Memberships include access to high-quality cardio and strength equipment, dynamic group classes, and personalized training programs. Since the company launched its fast-growing franchising operation in 2010, it has represented one of the industry’s most progressive and competitive models.
Ben Midgley, CEO of Crunch Franchising, commented, “Fitness Ventures has distinguished themselves by producing some of the fastest membership growth rates in the industry. The combination of Crunch’s exceptional operational support, consumer proposition and Brian’s operating strategy are producing amazing results. We look forward to our continued partnership with Brian’s team and supporting their development of the Crunch brand across the United States.”
“We are very excited about our partnership with Brian to deliver the Crunch fitness experience to new consumers,” said Prospect Hill Partner, Jeff Teschke. “Crunch is one of the fastest growing high-value, low-price fitness concepts in the United States and we believe our operational expertise and success in scaling other fitness investments like Equinox and Honors Holdings (the largest franchisee of Orangetheory Fitness) will help Brian’s team accelerate their already impressive growth.”
Latham & Watkins served as legal counsel to Prospect Hill. Shuffield Lowman served as legal counsel and MOK Capital Advisors served as financial advisor to Fitness Ventures.
About Fitness Ventures, LLC
Founded in 2016 by Brian Hibbard, Fitness Ventures, LLC is one of the fastest growing franchisees within the Crunch Fitness system. The Company currently operates locations across eight different states, with several more in development. With a unique operating and development strategy, and a keen focus on execution, Fitness Ventures operates some of the highest volume Crunch locations in the system and boasts industry leading financial returns.
About Crunch Fitness
Crunch (www.crunch.com) is a gym that believes in making serious exercise fun by fusing fitness and entertainment and pioneering a philosophy of ‘No Judgments.’ Crunch serves a fitness community for all types of people, with all types of goals, exercising all different ways; working out at the same place together. Crunch is renowned for creating one-of-a-kind group fitness classes and unique programming for our wildly diverse members. Headquartered in New York City, Crunch serves over 1,500,000 members with over 325 gyms worldwide in 30 states, Puerto Rico and four countries. Crunch is rapidly expanding across the U.S. and around the globe.
About Prospect Hill Growth Partners, L.P.
Prospect Hill Growth Partners (www.prospecthillgrowth.com) is a Boston-area private equity firm that makes control equity investments in North American consumer and healthcare growth companies. The partners at Prospect Hill have collectively invested $2.7 billion of capital in more than 35 portfolio companies over two decades. The partners’ successful investment track record has been built on their sector-focused investment strategy and expertise, a robust operational value-add model, and strong alignment of interests.
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.
“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”
Tesla shares jumped 14.8% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5.3%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 8.3% and Lucid Group fell 5.3%.
Tesla dominates sales of electric vehicles in the U.S, with 48.9% in market share through the middle of 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Subsidies for clean energy are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It included tax credits for manufacturing, along with tax credits for consumers of electric vehicles.
Musk was one of Trump’s biggest donors, spending at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. He also pledged to give away $1 million a day to voters signing a petition for his political action committee.
In some ways, it has been a rocky year for Tesla, with sales and profit declining through the first half of the year. Profit did rise 17.3% in the third quarter.
The U.S. opened an investigation into the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system after reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.
And investors sent company shares tumbling last month after Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, seeing not much progress at Tesla on autonomous vehicles while other companies have been making notable progress.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 100 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in base metal and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 103.40 points at 24,542.48.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 192.31 points at 42,932.73. The S&P 500 index was up 7.14 points at 5,822.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 9.03 points at 18,306.56.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.44 cents US on Tuesday.
The November crude oil contract was down 71 cents at US$69.87 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$7.20 at US$2,686.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.35 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also headed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 205.86 points at 24,508.12.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 336.62 points at 42,790.74. The S&P 500 index was up 34.19 points at 5,814.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.27 points at 18.342.32.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.71 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was down 15 cents at US$75.70 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.65 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$29.60 at US$2,668.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.47 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
