Adding a cafe helped this Virginia club grow its bottom line.
When the Richmond, Va.-based American Family Fitness chain opened its seventh chain in February of 2007, the club decided it was time to offer its members nutrition options as well as fitness ones. A juice bar seemed like the logical solution.
A juice bar isn’t necessarily an inexpensive proposition, since start up costs can start around $6,000 and run as high as $36,000. (The high end of the price tag typically includes construction costs.) But the American Family Fitness club had a built-in juice bar, so all it needed was a little help getting things started and bringing in the right equipment and products.
The American Family Fitness juice bar wanted to stand out by offering members truly informed shake choices and by educating members on what benefits their shake additives offered. Juice bar manager Dave Hornberger has taken an aggressive approach to employee education. His staff is comfortable helping members design their perfect shakes-and that confidence gets passed onto the members, who trust the club’s juice bar to play a role in their nutrition decisions. In fact, the club’s juice bar has been so successful with its members that the club is already looking at the possibility of growing its cafe area-just a little more than a year after its launch.
In fact, the biggest challenge American Family Fitness faces with its juice bar is keeping pace with member demand. During busy times at the club, the lines can stretch so that members have to wait several minutes to place and receive their smoothie orders. Hornberger has learned that his juice bar has a rhythm, much like a more typical bar, and he’s taught his staff to balance speed and entertainment so that long lines are less annoying to members than they might be. (In fact, the club immediately added an additional blender and pitchers because of the demand.) Because the equipment and products can grow with the club, American Family Fitness has been able to test the waters and spend to match demand instead of trying to project what member demand would be.
The club has plans to continue to grow its juice bar-right now, it’s looking at expanding its cold storage from small fridge storage to cold pan storage-but it’s been more than satisfied with its results. In addition to becoming a real nutrition resource for its members, the juice bar gives members another reason to spend time-and money-at their club. With an educated staff, excited members and long lines at the cash register, American Family Fitness expects to continue to see its juice bar revenues grow. Shawn Vaden, general manager of American Family Fitness, assistant general manager Alexandra Kelly-Maartens and juice bar manager Dave Hornberger contributed to this story. To learn more about American Family Fitness, visit amfamfit.com.
