After opening around 100 franchises throughout the United States, the New York-based fitness company GYMGUYZ is planning to set up 20 locations in Manitoba, including one in the Hub of the North.
According to founder and CEO Josh York, the company’s services will be available in Thompson throughout the next couple months, possibly sometime in the fall.
Unlike other local fitness services like Laban Fitness or Iron Fitness, GYMGUYZ is an on-demand personal training service that relies heavily on a mobile business model.
“We come to a setting of your choice. Home office, pool, park, place of worship, hospital, senior citizen homes, assisted living facilities, daycares,” said York. “We come in a fully loaded van with 365 pieces inside. We like to break it down one for every day of the year.”
York started GYMGUYZ in 2008 out of his parents’ house and the business has picked up considerably since then, with locations in the U.S. reaching as far as Honolulu, Hawaii. Entrepreneur Magazine even recently named it one of the fastest growing franchises in the world.
While GYMGUYZ has already set up locations in Toronto, Caledon, and Ottawa, the company’s expansion into Canada is still relatively new and York said that moving into places like Manitoba and Thompson is the natural next step in their franchise expansion.
“It’s not so much that we need a heavy, heavy population, we just need to have a good size in the community and be able to help people,” said York. “That market just really stood out to us because it’s not like a city like Toronto, but you do have some good density there … it works well for our model, demographic wise, so that’s why we choose that area.”
Even though a company like GYMGUYZ doesn’t need office space to operate, York said he intends to hire local to help get his franchise off the ground in northern Manitoba.
“Obviously we’re going to need some coaches, we’re going to need some admin staff, so there’ll definitely be some opportunities to open up some more jobs as well.”
If you would like to find about more about GYMGUYZ, including potential career opportunities, please visit their official website.
