Lift Brands, the parent company to Snap Fitness and five other wellness concepts, has sold six new YogaFit Studio franchises. The locations are to open in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area by the end of 2014. Lift Brands launched the YogaFit Studio concept last May when it opened its first location in Excelsior, Minnesota.
“Since we began offering franchise sales in late July, we have been fielding hundreds of inquiries from people interested in the YogaFit Studio concept and intrigued by our new model, which offers yoga at an unprecedented price point for the consumer,” said Peter Taunton, Lift Brands’ founder and CEO, in a press release. “We’re especially excited about the scalability of this model and the fact that we can offer those interested in owning their own yoga studio on a viable platform complete with financing assistance.”
With an initial investment starting at $89,000 to open a studio, and with Lift Brands’ financing programs, a studio can be owned with a cash investment starting at $35,000. An estimated 20 million Americans practice yoga and spend nearly $6 billion annually in classes, equipment, DVDs and more.
Lift Brands expects to sell 1,000 licenses for YogaFit domestically over the next five years. In 2013, Lift Brands executed a licensing agreement with YogaFit.
“Overall I’m most excited that we’ve been able to create a viable yoga business that offers affordability to both entrepreneurs and consumers,” said Taunton in the release. “YogaFit Studios, which follows our overall Lift Brands franchise model of providing turnkey entrepreneurial opportunities, is the perfect place to start.”