Yahoo Finance 5Q: Carrie Dorr, Pure Barre founder on exercise fads
Carrie Dorr was bringing her fitness company to Canada. That is, until what was meant to be a brief stopover in Colorado turned into five years.
“Back then, I was quite a gypsy,” says the founder and Chief Creative Officer of Pure Barre – a fitness chain with 223 locations that bases its exercises around a ballet barre. “That’s how I grew the company, I’d move to a city, open a location, build it up and then I would sell it and move on.”
Ah, the art of gypsy franchising but what changed, you ask. Love. Dorr found her future husband in Denver and she’s stayed there ever since. She even sold off her majority stake in the company to WJ Partners – a South Carolina-based private investment firm that buys up lower middle-market companies.
The former professional dancer-turned-lawyer-turned-fitness-CEO is happy with the decision, focusing on family and helping conceptualizing the future of barre fitness for Pure Barre.
Plus, the company is finally making that push north, hoping to elbow out a niche in the lucrative Canadian fitness market that brings in $2 billion annually. But it won’t be easy. The fitness industry in Canada is heavily saturated with over 4,600 businesses ranging from mom and pop shops to big brand gyms like Good Life or Extreme Fitness according to research by IBIS World.
We sat down with Dorr to chat about her barre empire, fighting the fad label and whether luxury fitness is even a thing.
You've built this mini barre empire and you’re coming North. What’s the plan?
Well that’s not so much a question for me. Now the company is so big there’s a whole other franchise department and I don’t really deal with them.
Oh, so what's your involvement then?
Well I resigned as CEO when I sold. I had a little boy and twin girls all in a row and I am now the chief creative officer. I shoot DVDs and I develop new programs for where the company is going in the future. So I'm a couple years ahead of where they are now as far as content and development.
With that creative vision, how do you stand out in such a low barrier to entry business? I mean it seems to me like someone could conceivably buy a bar, from Pure Barre itself even, and launch a studio without having to pay the US$44,000 franchise fee.
For me the most important thing is a safe, effective technique. So people that just go and open Sally's Barre for example – and this is a blanket statement I'm not saying all other barre studios are poor in technique – if they don’t really have an understanding of the technique and how it works then it's not going to be effective. It's like that in every business; you see people jump on board and all those copycats. Pure Barre has been around since 2001 so it’s over a decade old.
Were you the first to do this?
No, The Bar Method was around but they weren’t growing very quickly.
How do I know it’s not just another fitness fad? Don’t you worry about that?
Well it really works. Besides being a dancer, choreographer and even an attorney, I’ve taught every fitness class under the sun from aerobics to kickboxing. I loved it all and I never bash any other technique but it wasn’t changing my body. But the thing about barre is that it’s really effective for a lot of women. It's so available to everybody, all ages and fitness levels.
Sure, but I feel a bit like it’s mostly marketed to women.
I think its great for men as well, it's cross training but at the end of the day it really targets outer thighs, seat, hips, abs, I mean the areas that women are more concerned about. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for men or it’s not great for them but 99 per cent of the client base is female.
I remember going through a period of time where I was like, “okay, let’s really try to get the men in here.” But it just kind of is what it is.
It feels that way with a lot of fitness though. There are a handful of gyms that have opened in my area over the past few years that are women-focused. What up with that? I’m feeling a little left out here, like they’ve given up on me.
Do you know why that might be? I think a long time ago you saw the big box gyms open up and now you're seeing it swing back in the other direction towards boutique fitness, little studios. For some reasons it seems like little studios do target women more. So I can totally see how that happens.
Although, CrossFit is really popular and that seems to target a more male client base…
True. With boutique fitness you can really tell who they’re going after in the market.
Yeah and I think too, and this is another blanket statement, but men generally like to run or play basketball or do something with a group of guys whereas women tend to flock towards a more intimate studio environment.
So then what about luxury fitness? Does it even exist? It sounds a bit like a made up category to me.
I’ve been in the industry for so long and fifteen years ago I would of referred to barre and pilates as – I’ve never heard the term luxury fitness – but more expensive. It wasn’t so mainstream then. The people doing barre and pilates were Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow and it was those types of people. It's the opposite now. It’s still a pricey class – it’s not like you pay 30 bucks for a monthly membership – but the prices have come down.
But does it need that exclusivity? Does it really benefit from it?
No I definitely don’t think so, especially now. If the intent of the barre industry was to keep it really small and kind of exclusive than where the barre industry has gone kind of contradicts that. Everybody is franchising, it’s all over the place now.
I guess on the other side, having it everywhere means low brand loyalty.
Yeah, you know it's interesting because sometimes a higher price point equates to a more dedicated client. I don’t know if it’s because they feel like they’re paying more money so they’re definitely going to show up versus if you just pay a monthly fee that’s low and only go once a week, you don’t feel like you're wasting money. For those who it’s a really big part of their life and they're results driven, they are great clients to have because the harder someone works, the more they’re going to achieve.
It almost feels like the ones who can’t commit to their fitness goals are a part of the business model itself. It’s just money in the pockets of the big gyms when those people don’t show up.
And I think that’s one of the reasons you’ve seen the industry swing to where it’s boutique fitness focused. Because all these big box gyms were offering a ton of classes but there's a lot of people in them but no one on one attention and people that aren’t that serious.
I've heard all these horror stories about people trying to get their memberships cancelled. The boutiques almost seem to offer a bit more come and go flexibility.
They’re also experts in what they offer. I taught for a ton of big gyms and you know you take a two-day workshop on spinning and now you’re a spin instructor and there’s no continuing education, no ongoing choreography and no one overseeing you or reviewing your class. It kind of gets lost in the shuffle. If you’re a barre studio or pilates or yoga that’s all you do.
Do you ever see yourself moving beyond this business?
Um, we'll see (laughs). I'm a big believer in constantly evolving and moving forward so who knows what's next.
It's that gypsy soul.
Yeah, I know, you can't shake it really.
