Club Solutions has received confirmation that Jim Snow, the CEO and president of Gold’s Gym International (GGI) and Todd Scartozzi, the COO, are no longer with GGI.
In an e-mail to Club Solutions, Ginger Collins, the executive director of Gold’s Gym Franchisee Association (GGFA), made the following statement concerning the news: “Yes, I can confirm it. We have no details, however and were surprised by the action.” Collins said that Snow and Scartozzi’s exit would not affect the current operation of GGFA.
Gold’s Gym’s annual convention occurred last week, July 15-17, 2013. According to Collins, both Snow and Scartozzi were in attendance.
Snow had been with GGI for three years and 10 months, and became CEO after James Weaver, the previous CEO, resigned after just one year.
Scartozzi became COO of GGI in 2010, and had previously served as GGI’s executive vice president.
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.
the state of the fitness industry is in disarray,and is progressively going from bad to worse to horrendous when it comes to getting the right information to the public regarding the best fitness practices in gyms. Ive read some articles of the past few years that have told terribly inaccurate stories from so called experts about the overall transition from strength machines,to more (VERY marketable) functional training,which is by far,one of the MOST outrageous and disgusting frauds the industry has ever experienced. It has reached the point of not being able to trust a vast majority of instructors and personal trainers,because they are learning their material based on trends and mindless alternatives,rather than on science and fitness fact;the competition has gotten SO terrible,that most fitness center staff,behaving out of simple straight up IGNORANCE,are putting their clients in blatant danger of injury,with little if any real understanding about what IS and what is NOT the best mode of the exercise for most people. Im even reading an advertisement here,while i write this,for P90X,which is a completely ridiculous and dangerous exercise for most people. Golds Gym is going through the same pains as everyone else,quietly trying to figure out how to stay competitive by selling the public the same stupid,useless garbage every other club is (trying to) having success with…. squeezing dollars out of their membership no matter what it takes,cuz its gotten so difficult to gain and retain members with the usual sales pitches.
This is where the industry is at.
thanks…
scott
Among marketing pros.. Gold’s has become somewhat of a “legacy brand.”
Perhaps new leadership will re-focus and rejuvenate the brand as well as re-energize its licensees.
Having worked as the GM for a large corporate-owned Gold’s Gym in Texas, I can tell you from first hand experience that I does not surprise me at all that these leaders were let go. In fact, when I chose to leave the company, I wrote a letter to both of them, explaining why. My intent was to actually help the company, because their thinking was so backwards. Everything they did was on the front end. It was all about selling memberships and personal training. They did not care that 55% of the members were quitting each year and that 75% of the employees were as well. There was essentially no money in the budget to take care of the members on an serious level, which showed they didn’t care what happened to folks after they paid their fees. Worse yet, I received complaints literally all day long each day, because corporate continued to bill people long after they quit their memberships. Terrible leadership and terrible decision making which massively damaged the company reputation.