Rockbox Fitness

RockBox Fitness

Franchisor Website

The Story

The Rockbox Fitness story starts with Steve Halloran, an entrepreneur with a passion for boxing and fitness. It was his unwavering passion to share his love of kickboxing and functional fitness that set the course for a very different kind of gym. He opened his first location in 2013 and continually honed the workout, member experience, and studio offerings to become something unique. It became more than just a boxing gym, but a respite for members to build their mind, body, and confidence. In 2016, Roger Martin started working out at one of Steve’s locations and was so inspired by the vision and the potential that he left his executive job in the pharmaceutical industry to join Steve full-time. Between the two of them, they rebranded the studios, the market positioning, and member experience to enable the locations to thrive in a competitive but fast-growing market. And with this, RockBox Fitness was born. In just one year, they were able to take memberships at their new location from 53 members to 431.


After opening and successfully operating multiple locations, Steve and Roger decided that the franchise model was the most effective and efficient way to scale Rockbox Fitness across the nation. Rockbox Fitness began to have some early success in selling franchises, opening several studios around the Carolinas and on the West Coast. However, Roger and Steve felt the friction that so many emerging brands do, and set out to find a franchise guru to take their brand to the next level. 


Jeff, after just having sold AdvantaClean on January 1, 2019, met Roger and Steve in a local coffee shop, the same coffee shop that had been considered the corporate office to RockBox Fitness Franchising for nearly two years. In early 2019, Dudan Group made a majority investment into Rockbox Fitness Franchising in October 2019.

The Business

Rockbox Fitness is the leading brand in the Boutique Fitness Kickboxing space. Rockbox provides a high-touch, instructor-led, kickboxing and functional fitness workout. Rockbox set out to solve boredom in the fitness industry, and did so with a proprietary studio design. The Rockbox Fitness studio combines its proprietary “rig” system, which holds 10 Thai bags and 10 Teardrop bags, with a functional fitness circuit space. This studio layout, coupled with state-of-the-art lighting, audio and in-studio technology provides the consumer an unforgettable experience. Rockbox is more than a gym membership; it’s a community of people coming together to achieve lasting results.

Investment Thesis

  • Competitive advantage in proprietary workout design 
  • Kickboxing presented a fragmented fitness vertical 
  • Boutique fitness is a large and growing industry
  • Lucrative unit economics with a strong member acquisition and retention strategy
  • Compelling market introduction strategy
  • Attractive special revenue opportunities
  • Opportunity to create competitive advantages at the franchisor level
  • Highly-capable founders continued executive participation 
  • Low-market acquisition multiple presents opportunity for lucrative MOIC

Value Creation

  • Instituted proprietary growth methodology: “The 6 Pillars of Franchising”
  • Organic franchise development
  • In-house marketing capabilities
  • Strong operations team
  • Efficient business office infrastructure
  • Scalable technology implementation
  • The first centralized call center in the fitness industry 
  • Expanded corporate office by 20,000 sqft
  • Enhanced high-level recruiting efforts, including the appointment of a seasoned boutique fitness executive as CEO
  • Developed a proprietary nutrition line, Leverage Nutrition

  • Led key strategic initiatives including COVID-19 navigation, which resulted in zero store closures, and brought an Area Development Program to market in 2021, resulting in rapid organic franchise sales growth
  • Drove increases in same-store-sales
  • Brought in seasoned industry consultants, resources and advisors
  • Created strategic vendor partnerships that enhanced special revenue and rebate income
  • Launched a proprietary virtual platform
  • Launched a proprietary all-in-one solution that included a learning management system for onboarding franchisees, and continued operational support portal

Status

Rockbox Fitness currently operates out of Huntersville, N.C. Rockbox Fitness has 110+ units awarded, with 35 units open and 60 units under development to open by December 2021.

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