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With a hybrid approach to virtual and in-person fitness, a focus on health and wellness with a Clinical Advisory Board and a supportive business model, the fast-growing franchise has expanded to both domestic and international markets after only 12 months of franchising.
P.volve, the boutique fitness franchise headquartered in New York, is celebrating a successful first year of franchising. P.volve is a functional fitness brand revolutionizing the way women move, live and feel and is bridging the gap between fitness and physical therapy. Since being founded in 2017, P.volve has amassed a huge social media following, and now, as the team continues to roll out new services and optimize its fitness model, franchisees have an opportunity to leverage this established reputation and join an emerging brand on the ground floor.
When the P.volve team first launched the franchise in January 2021, VP of Studio and Franchise Operations RJ Krone says the brand had 11 leads in three days because of the social media presence alone. “We found that a lot of the individuals that were inquiring about the franchise were active members with us, so the first part of our year was working with some of the most educated franchise candidates I’ve ever worked with,” he said. “They really knew everything about the brand.”
P.volve’s hybrid model of a global on-demand platform and in-person, high-end studio experience meets clients where they are: in their home or in person. P.volve’s method pairs its patented equipment line with functional movements designed to strengthen, support and restore the body. Other programs rely on joint-straining reps, but the P.volve method focuses on moving the body in its natural way, producing consistent, long-term, sustainable results that can aid in preventing future injury and helping manage existing everyday pain. This unique model has caught the attention of members across the globe, and now that the brand is franchising, many of those members are looking to bring the brand to their local market.
“We’ve had strong growth with our members at the core — they are passionate about our mission, understand the method and want to share the brand’s offering with their communities,” said Julie Cartwright, President of P.volve. “Prospective franchisees are also recognizing the opportunity to partner with a credible team and brand name, while taking advantage of recurring revenue streams, semi-absentee ownership potential and more.”
Over the past year, Krone says P.volve held several Discovery Days and officially awarded five franchise units. “We signed franchisees in San Diego and Nashville,” he said. “We also got into international development with a signing in Victoria, British Columbia.
Since day one, Cartwright says P.volve has always been focused on its mission to strengthen and heal, and a big part of achieving that mission is the participation in clinical studies to build credibility behind the brand’s method.
“These studies simply allow us to state clinically that the method does more than just focus on fitness, it helps with pain management and reduction,” said Krone. “We knew clients were coming in and feeling better, but when we participated in a clinical study with the University of Minnesota, it provided solid proof that P.volve could be used as a method for reducing pain. We also built a clinical advisory board, which helped us with building classes that were based on science. That is why our method is age-agnostic — we see people in their 20s to people in their 60s, and they all find both fitness development and pain relief.”
For example, Cartwright says the brand expanded its “Movement Therapy” content category, which includes a series co-created with the clinical advisory board based on different injuries, sensitivities and need states. One of these new initiatives is the brand’s first-ever ingestible recovery solution.
The clinical studies aren’t the only way the P.volve brand has continued to evolve, both from a consumer angle and for business owners. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, for example, Krone says the team learned several valuable lessons. “We added more people to the team to help owners with marketing, studio operations, staffing and more,” he said. “We spent the year building out the infrastructure, lining up vendors, support, real estate partners, etc. We gained a ton of experience in the franchise industry and studio business, and bringing that knowledge into P.volve was huge.”
Another big lesson, Krone says, was how to offer effective real estate support. “We’ve learned several lessons about how to find the best locations,” he said. “We hired a real estate partner, Colliers, and an architect partner, DxU, who can take our franchisees by the hand and go through the whole process of site identification, LOI and lease support. We also partnered with Buxton, which offers mapping software that allows us to see the concentration of existing digital members in markets across the world. This allows us to place franchisees in areas where there is already strong brand awareness.”
P.volve was also able to lean on its company-owned studios to help develop best practices for franchise owners moving forward. “Having the infrastructure in place allows us to test our systems and processes and bring them to franchise units,” said Krone. “We learned a lot about how to open physical locations during COVID, for example, and we can now see how those lessons can be leveraged in the new normal.”
For example, P.volve has also continued to evolve its consumer offerings to best meet members where they are in their post-pandemic routines. “We are a hybrid model, which allows our members to go to the studio a few times a week and also attend virtual classes,” said Krone. “We were already doing this before the pandemic, and we had a vision for what we needed to do to bring this to the masses. As more and more people jumped into the digital space, we were already there. We’ve been able to meet that demand faster than other concepts, which really bodes well for our franchise system moving forward.”
At the start of 2022, P.volve also unveiled a whole new look and feel to their online and brick-and-mortar presence by gracefully connecting movement to the essence of nature through neutral colors and textures that reflect the brand’s environment.
Looking ahead, Krone says the P.volve team has no plans to slow down. “We hope to have 225 units signed by the end of 2025,” he said. “But we want to grow the right way. We can’t just put the pedal on the metal. We want to make sure we are able to support incoming franchise owners so they can thrive. After this year of fine-tuning our operations, evolving our business model and signing our first franchisees, we are better positioned than ever to grow.”
P.volve is looking for franchisees who prioritize health and wellness in their personal lives and are up-to-date with the latest wellness trends. They’re also looking for entrepreneurs with a background in business management and leadership. But perhaps most importantly, they’re looking for positive people who get things done and face obstacles with a smile.
Today, Cartwright says P.volve is emerging as a top choice among prospective franchise owners looking to enter the $36.6 billion fitness industry. “We are most excited to continue disrupting the category and growing our footprint of studios globally,” she said. “We will continue to give our on-demand members the opportunity to join a local studio community and provide our members, health and wellness professionals, and investors the opportunity to bring the P.volve method to their local market.”
Total investment ranges from $423,950-$707,000. For more information on franchising with P.volve, visit https://pvolvefranchise.com
ABOUT P.VOLVE
P.volve is a leading science-backed, holistic fitness Method for women that harnesses the power of functional movement to nourish and heal while it shapes, tones, and strengthens. The Method supports women’s evolving needs and empowers its members to move with ease—for life. Experienced in-studio and virtually, P.volve offers a growing franchise studio footprint, proprietary equipment, an on-demand and live-streaming platform, and a recovery supplement. P.volve launched in November 2017 and was co-founded by Rachel Katzman, in partnership with Camelot Venture Group, whose portfolio companies include 1-800 CONTACTS, SmileDirectClub and Quicken Loans. Available worldwide, P.volve is headquartered in New York City. For more information, please visit www.pvolve.com and @pvolve on Instagram.
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