Todd Wadler and Felicia Alexander have made significant investments in the infrastructure of a brand whose footprint they hope to double by 2025. They purchased Title Boxing Club in January 2021 and brought it under their BoxUnion Holdings. Moreover, they have conducted roadshows, taken countless boxing classes, and invested heavily in the brand. However, they haven’t signed a new franchise agreement, at least not until last month.
“We intentionally stopped all growth initiatives when we made the acquisition. We really wanted to get our arms around the business,” said Alexander, who with Wadler co-founded BoxUnion and is now chief revenue officer of Title Boxing.
Existing franchisees Blake and Jenny Kidwell will launch a second studio in Sacramento, California, in their first agreement following the acquisition.
“Sacramento is my home and after experiencing a Title class for the first time, I was determined to bring the concept to this community,” said Blake Kidwell in a statement. “Jenny and I have built a welcoming environment in our existing club for all members—regardless of their fitness level—with the help of employees who live and breathe that same mantra. We have established ourselves in the heart of city and I’m excited to continue to strengthen our presence in the area.”
From a high of 180 in 2019, Title Boxing has 141 venues by the end of 2021. It competes in a congested fitness market that is becoming more and more cluttered with boxing and kickboxing ideas. There are 450 or so 9Round sites in the US, 75 studios in Mayweather Boxing + Fitness, RockBox, Legends, Rumble, and other places.
With new initiatives targeted at enhancing franchise profitability and member experience, Title Boxing’s new franchisor is looking to relaunch growth. In order to meet with franchisees and attend classes, Alexander, Wadler, and other members of the leadership team visited nearly every location, according to Alexander.
“We were really looking at the experience inside the studio itself,” she said. “We noticed, other than just having ‘Title’ on the wall, the experience could vary quite a bit.”
In response, the business developed a 52-week curriculum for club managers and trainers that builds on members’ skill improvement and has a system for introducing new routines. It also hired numerous additional people, including a vice president of field marketing and district field operators, and developed a new learning management system, Title University, to “make it easier to onboard, train and retain employees,” noted Alexander, and made multiple new hires, including a vice president of field marketing and district field operators. New platforms to provide data and analytics, meanwhile, give franchisees “better visibility into their operations.”
“Before we came on board, franchisees could see leads and memberships that came in, but that was it,” explained Alexander, and franchisees felt the lead volume was lacking. “With the new analytics program, we could see it wasn’t that they weren’t getting leads, it’s that” those leads “weren’t getting booked into a trial class.” The new platform monitors lead development and membership conversion.
The business redesigned Title On Demand, the brand’s digital portal where members can access boxing, kickboxing, strength, and other class types, and added bundled subscriptions as another opportunity for franchisees to boost income. For establishments operating in markets with a population of more than 100,000, the average gross sales in 2021 were $433,609.
Alexander pointed out that franchisees who are utilizing the additional resources and operational improvements are in a position to expand.
“Those that are really all in, that are following the plays, are seeing the benefit,” she said.
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