Charter Fitness, a fitness franchise with 35 locations in the greater Chicago area, recently announced management changes expected to facilitate company growth beyond Chicagoland.
The management changes include the promotion of Dan Collins from director of sales to COO. In addition, Michael Vogel has joined Charter Fitness as senior vice president of development.
Collins has been with Charter Fitness since 2006, holding a variety of senior management positions with the company. “I am every excited to be elevated to the operations side of the company,” said Collins. “One of the things I really like about our industry is coming up with systems that make things easier for our operators and better for our members. To have more involvement in that is something I’m excited to do.”
Although this is Vogel’s first foray into the fitness industry, he boasts more than 20 years of franchise development experience, most recently with Del Taco. “What excited me most about joining the Charter Fitness team is the strength of the management group,” said Vogel. “There’s a vast opportunity to grow the brand.”
In fact, 10 additional Charter Fitness locations are currently in the pipeline, in addition to expansion plans in key areas across the U.S. According to Vogel, the company is looking at Texas, Florida and South Carolina, in addition to key cities such as St. Louis, Kansas City and Indianapolis. “We’re going to be opportunistic through the country, but those areas are targeted markets,” said Vogel.
Charter Fitness opened its first location in 2001. Collins said the company has grown for the better, since then. “There’s been so much development and growth that it’s vastly different from the company I joined in 2006,” he said. Key changes included updating the look and feel of Charter Fitness clubs, in addition to the streamlining of services.
According to Collins, Charter Fitness has always excelled at catering to its members. “What we’ve realized is that every person who comes in, comes in for a specific reason,” he said. “We’ve created the tools to help each person reach their goals, including personal training and small group training. For the person who doesn’t want personal training or small group training, but who needs a bit of direction, we have virtual training. We’ve created solutions for every type of person that enters our doors.”
As for its franchising efforts, both Collins and Vogel believe Charter Fitness has the tools necessary to be a successful franchising company. “We have great systems in place to make all of our operators successful,” said Collins.
By Rachel Zabonick
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
