When Royce Pulliam was considering his first foray into health club ownership, his father, also named Royce, tried to talk him out of it. In this case, it is fortunate the son failed to follow his father's advice. The junior Pulliam is now CEO of Global Fitness Holdings, a regional company he has built up to 29 health clubs in Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio, with sights on growing to 100 clubs nationwide.
The name Global Fitness may not be familiar, but Pulliam's focus the last few months has been on a new name, Urban Active.
Pulliam cut his teeth in the fitness industry as a franchisee, first with World Gym, then with Gold's Gym. Unlike some franchise concepts where the corporate entity keeps a heavy hand in each company's inner workings, in the fitness industry, holding a franchise is mainly licensing use of the name and logo. The look of each location and its day-to-day functions are managed locally. The up side to that is control; the down side, for some, is a huge learning curve.
For Pulliam, he began that learning process in the early 1990s. The Cynthiana native attended Eastern Kentucky University and initially worked for his father in Richmond after college. After moving to Lexington in the mid '80s, he joined the Gold's Gym on Tiverton Way and befriended the manager. Eventually, he tried to buy the store. Although the deal fell through, his fascination with the fitness industry was launched. He regrouped and instead contacted World Gym. He opened his first World Gym on Alexandria Drive, built a second on Richmond Road in Lakeview Plaza, and by 2000, had six stores in Lexington, Cincinnati, and Nashville.
"I learned the hard way," said Pulliam. "Nobody taught me this. It cost me a lot of money learning the process, learning how to make money in this business. I grunted it out; I rolled up my sleeves. (When I was with World Gym) I sold memberships, I cleaned, I did the advertising."
Pulliam took to the business, earning the Rookie of the Year award from World Gym in 1995. But he was already thinking bigger. In 2000 he switched his company's alignment to Gold's Gym.
"We wanted to expand outside of Lexington and Nashville, and some of the territories we wanted to go into were not available-like Columbus," said Pulliam. "There were markets we wanted to go to that were geographically close to Lexington that were already taken, and they weren't for Gold's."
Within a year Pulliam was nominated for national awards from Gold's in categories like "Visionary of the Year" and "Most New Gyms." His territory included all of Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.
But by 2006, Pulliam was feeling cramped. He and his team wanted more territory, more room to roam, and due at least in part to licenses with other franchisees, Gold's couldn't accommodate those needs.
"We were at a crossroads with our business," said Pulliam. "We had a lot of young people who wanted to grow. This is what they want to do for the next 10 years, and our engines were geared up and Gold's unfortunately, were not willing to, nor could they, satisfy our needs as a growing, young company. We needed the ability to at least get to 100 stores."
In November of 2006 Pulliam began negotiations with Gold's, originally with the intent to try and stay within the fold. However, once it was clear that wouldn't be the end result, Pulliam and his partners started researching their own fitness platform.
Pulliam owns Global Fitness Holdings with his wife, Tomi Anne, and with Larry and Stephen Paul. The Pauls live in Los Angeles and, in the name of their Laurel Crown Capital, bought 49 percent of Global Fitness Holdings in 2005, originally with the intent of optimizing the current territory with 30-40 clubs, then selling, either to Gold's, or to another entity. However, as they partnered with the Pulliams, they started growing faster than anticipated and enjoyed the investment. The company's employees weren't looking to sell either. "The word sell really didn't exist in our vocabulary or our meetings, but being out of running room we really had no choiceÖdo we turn the engines off or do we sell, or do we re-brand and keep growing?" said Pulliam.
Pulliam followed the Pauls' lead in interviewing marketing firms to help them settle on a new name for their new entity. When negotiations with Gold's ended unsuccessfully in October 2007, Global Fitness Holdings was able to move forward immediately to have all Urban Active signage and corresponding upgrades made to its 25 facilities.
"The name and the brand really meant a lot to us, because we knew if we were going to take down Gold's, it had to be something special, something that everybody would look at an say 'you're not going to miss a lick,'" said Pulliam.
Active is also in the name of a similar company Pulliam watches closely, Virgin Active. The Virgin Active fitness business is owned by Richard Branson who is best known for his Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Mobile businesses. Although he's never met Branson or visited one of his 160-plus Virgin Active fitness clubs, he has a clear admiration for the British entrepreneur.
"I really like what he's done with his brand," said Pulliam. "I always wanted to incorporate the word active. I don't want to be a gym. We're not a gym. Our new stores, we're like a lifestyle center. You've got the three places, home, work, and we wanted to be that third place. Our clubs, we have a lot of the same features. Energy, colors, a lot of amenities."
Urban Active is extremely visible in Lexington, with facilities on Palumbo Drive, downtown, and on Wellington Way (Palomar). Just to the north of the Palomar location is the Global Fitness headquarters where between 75-100 employees are working toward the goal of 100 centers in the Urban Active name.
It takes about two years to bring a new facility of this size to fruition, so Urban Active stores numbered 26-30, which are opening between Jan. 1 and March 1, have been in the works for some time. However, ground has broken for the first Urban Active location outside the original Kentucky/Ohio/Tennessee territory at the Bakery Square development, a mixed-use facility that will include retail, residential, and office space outside Pittsburgh. It will open sometime in 2009.
Helping Urban Active make a big splash has been another Lexington company, EOP Architects. Rick Ekhoff, Principal of Design at EOP, and Pulliam's company initially partnered on the Wellington Way facility. The striking glass faÁade of the building helped earn it an award for Gold's as the Best Gym in the Mid-Atlantic.
"It's all about energy," said Ekhoff. "We wanted the space to echo the function of the building, which was energy. The whole premise has been to allow people who are going by the gym to see what's going on so they are familiar before they go through those front doors. We want people to feel comfortable as they go by the gym and thinking about fitness and want to be a part of it."
"I think the reason we seem to be so compatible is that we're primarily a design firm," said Ekhoff. "We're a firm believer that architecture can help our clients be more successful; good buildings make a difference."
Urban Active's success will continue to be a success for EOP, as the two companies plan to work together for all future locations. Currently 12 of EOP's 35 employees are focused full time on Urban Active's growth. Four basic prototypes have been established, but each site has different needs, from square footage to other specifics. Among the features of each gym will be some green design elements, something Ekhoff said his company incorporates into every building they produce. Energy-efficient products, low-emission tile and paint choices, and lots of natural lights are among the specific green design features in the new Urban Active plans.
"The evidence is there, the architecture is playing a role in their success," said Ekhoff. "It's what makes it fun. It's been fun because Royce and his group are motivated, committed to the success of their product, and I think that is important."