World Gym's Canadian Crusader

With a fitness pedigree and indepth rebranding experience, Wes Hodgson is relishing World Gym’s expansion across his country.

Each week it feels like World Gym is discussing its growth, both domestically and abroad. Although the company changed hands a couple of times in the 2000s, it has since found its brand staying put, allowing it to grow and thrive throughout the world of fitness.

Its brand says enough, stating clearly and extravagantly that it is the gym of the world — World Gym.

Wes Hodgson grew up surrounded by fitness. His father had opened up a gym called Popeye’s Gym in 1976 on the shoulders of his own personal passion for weight lifting. From the time he was born, young Hodgson watched his dad work and operate the gym.

His study of what made people enjoy the gym helped him as he aged, and he began to work diligently in his family’s business. By the time he was 17 years old, Hodgson was leading the club in membership sales.

“I started working in the gym at a young age,” said Hodgson. “I went through the whole process. Started entry level from cleaning, worked my way all the way through.”

Considering the amount of success Hodgson had in the gym at an early age, it’s no surprise he was quickly in a management position and looking to grow the brand.

“I decided that we needed to adopt a brand,” said Hodgson. “If we wanted to do that we needed to change our name.”

Hodgson began researching brands and opportunities that Popeye’s could adopt to become a strong name for growth. “I interviewed three brands and I liked World Gym for a couple of reasons,” he explained. “One, World Gym was a great representation of the gym that we currently had at that point. It made a lot of sense culturally. I liked the changes they made to the brand at that time, and when I called the guy from World Gym, the [managing director] (Guy Cammilleri) was literally on an airplane and we had dinner that night. It was a handshake deal, done on the spot. It was all in all, a good fit.”

What really drew Hodgson to World Gym was how the fear of being a franchisee was put aside immediately. For Hodgson, it was vital that he align with a company that matched his personality. “World Gym [International] wasn’t a bunch of guys in suits, sitting on the 20th floor of an office tower somewhere — that wasn’t the deal and that’s what really sort of drew me to it,” he said. “It was a bunch of guys like me, in T-shirts and jeans. I really liked that.”

Hodgson completely rebranded Popeye’s Gym to World Gym, which inherently became a learning tool for assisting future franchisees. “There’s not a lot of people out there that will spend $150,000, or whatever the cost is, to really convert your club well,” said Hodgson. “It’s easy to just change your sign, but I’m talking about painting the gym, and giving the gym an entire facelift. We spent a lot of money redoing the gym. It was done really well, and all the things I did, I think I did them right. And the owners [of World Gym] saw that and said, ‘Hey, this guy knows how to do things.’”

Once Hodgson had his first World Gym up and running in 2010, he was eager to begin the next. With that came an even deeper relationship between him and World Gym corporate, which made him the go-to individual as the Gateway Partner for World Gym Canada.

Hodgson’s World Gym wasn’t the first World Gym in Canada, but it was the first one in Ontario. “At this point, World Gym had a small number of gyms on the West Coast (of Canada) and that was it,” explained Hodgson. “It did not have a big presence and there was no thought that World Gym is an up-and-coming gym in Canada. It was not in growth mode.”

To change that perception, Hodgson began with his own club. He emptied out the club for a Saturday night and threw a huge party for the members and the public, turning the club into a faux nightclub for the evening. “It was really cool,” he said. “(The managing director) from World Gym came out and it was this great party that was done Hollywood style, which was done to replicate the World Gym brand and what World Gym stood for back in the 70s.”

They spared no expense for the party and getting people in the community excited for the coming of World Gym. They paid models to workout on specific pieces of equipment and had “buff guys” handing out drinks. “It was done really, really well,” said Hodgson. “We invited all the local editors for the Canadian fitness trade magazines and stuff like that. We wanted to set this cool bar that says, ‘Hey, here is World Gym and this is what we’re about and watch us do it.’ We did that and that was sort of a take-off point for us.”

From there, Popeye’s Gym had to completely convert to the World Gym brand. “It’s surprising what you can get done in 30 days when you’re on the phone 24/7 pushing people,” said Hodgson. “We did it in less than 60 days, but it’s very difficult. Once we did it, it was easier to do the second time and third time on some newer gyms, but it’s a lot of work — it’s a good 45 days of nonstop work.”

As the club transformed, it remained open to its members, while also using new branding to assist in drawing in new members. “The hardest part of the conversions is that we don’t like them to drag out too long,” said Hodgson. “We want to have as much bang for our buck and as much pop as possible. We said, ‘If we are going to bring the brand World Gym, the gym doesn’t need to just change, it needs to improve.’ There needs to be a benefit to the members, because remember, people never like change, especially gym members. They feel they have ownership in the gym. We said, ‘We need to improve the gym.’ It’s a battle, it’s not easy. It’s not like we paint the walls and change the name and everyone is happy.”

In 2010, in the midst of Popeye’s transition, World Gym had recently been purchased by the Cammilleris and undergone a total redesign of its own. This had helped to bring a new vitality to the brand that had been in existence for more than 30 years.

“The brand that we had before we changed our name was not a good brand to continue and grow,” said Hodgson. “My option was to go the franchise unit, or the other option in my head was to develop my own brand. I liked the pricing structure and affordability of World Gym. I saw a benefit there. I wanted to be involved with a brand at that point that was going to be successful and grow. I didn’t see some of the other cost models of the other franchise organizations being successful in our market.”

Understanding Hodgson’s demographic was crucial in the success of picking a franchise and successfully launching the new brand to members and potential members. Popeye’s Gym had long been developed as a bodybuilding gym, which was the original structure of World Gym.

However, World Gym and Hodgson had a desire, almost simultaneously, to reach fitness enthusiasts outside of the bodybuilding community. This would break open the club to more membership opportunities and greater programming.

“I went down and visited some World Gyms in Buffalo, [N.Y.] and at that time they were just rolling with this high-volume, low-price model,” explained Hodgson. “That was the other piece that we transitioned in our business, was our business model. We took our gym from a $40-a-month club, to a $10-a-month gym.”

For Hodgson, the transition was one of the more interesting processes he had experienced in his life inside a club. “If done correctly and methodically, it can be very successful,” he said. “The most difficult part is getting over the fact that you’re cutting your price by 75 percent. Your members don’t mind, but from an owner’s perspective, that’s the biggest fear: oh my God, how am I going to be successful? I’m collecting a quarter of the dues [compared] to what I was.”

Hodgson’s biggest competitor in Canada is Goodlife Fitness, which boasts more than 300 locations throughout the country. He knew that if he was to succeed he was going to have to compete on a certain level. He decided that his World Gyms would compete on facilities, service and price.

“For me bringing on a World Gym brand — I went from one location at the time, to now my members have access to 200 locations around the world,” said Hodgson. “My biggest competitor has 300 clubs. This makes sense for me.”

Hodgson’s World Gym Canada locations were doing really well. The first location had taken off and he had already launched his second, when World Gym corporate took notice. Hodgson said corporate gave him a call about possibly being the Gateway Partner in Canada. “This was sort of exactly what I wanted to do,” he said. “I wanted to grow my gyms, but I also want to grow other people’s gyms and I wanted to grow the market, so it was a perfect opportunity for me.”

In 2013, Hodgson and World Gym truly put their best foot forward and started franchising new gyms. Hodgson’s belief is that they will eventually emerge as the major low-price, high-volume facility in Canada.

“It’s very important in our marketing that we portray ourselves correctly,” explained Hodgson. “What we do to get around [the bodybuilding stigma] is we put in a great gym, but we tailor the gym and market the gym towards the demographic that’s exactly the opposite. We position it as ‘come to World Gym’ for the benefit and expertise — for all those reasons, but this is the environment you are going to see.’”

That environment is drastically different than the bodybuilding environment that is slowly becoming detached from the brand. However, it’s on Hodgson and World Gym to continually develop great gyms that are branded in a way that appeals to the masses.

World Gym Canada positions each of its locations as a 30,000-square-foot facility that provides members with everything that Goodlife Fitness does, but for a fraction of the cost. “Just because you’re paying a quarter of the price doesn’t mean you’re going to get a quarter of the facility or a quarter of the service,” said Hodgson. “We’re still going to give you the same amount of service, or more, the same facility, or more, and we’re going to beat the price.”

According to Hodgson, there is a huge under-saturation of fitness centers in Canada. “There’s an under-saturation of high-volume, low-price fitness clubs,” he continued. “We don’t have a Planet Fitness on every corner. Our goal is to own the high-volume, low-price model in Canada. We are going into larger areas — big, metropolitan areas that can sustain five to 10 gyms, and working those territories as fast as we can.

“Canada is a large footprint, but there’s only so many large metropolitan areas. So instead of going to 10 different cities and putting one gym in each city, let’s go to Toronto and let’s do 15 gyms there as fast as we can. I think in the next two years we’re going to have enough roots to ensure we are on the path to do that.”

In 10 years, Hodgson believes there will be more Canadians wanting to workout, and the price will have to be more affordable to people. “Our market is typically a few years behind [the U.S.],” said Hodgson. “I see the saturation of those fitness clubs definitely increasing over the next five years — it has to. We would like to be 100 gyms in five years. As long as we can stronghold those metropolitan areas we won’t have a problem doing that.”

Within a year and a quarter, Hodgson and World Gym Canada have grown to more than 20 locations, being well on their way to having the magical 100 clubs in five years. However, as Hodgson explained, the first priority of World Gym Canada is to ensure that the proper roots are sowed so that they can grow and develop into major franchisees. If the roots are sown properly, World Gym could easily be the next major stronghold on the Canadian fitness front.