2021 White Bear Area Chamber of Commerce's Annual Meeting/Inaugural & Business Awards

Chuck Runyon, Co-Founder of Anytime Fitness
"What we have learned, adapted and now are better because of it"

“We do not want to go back to being the way we were,” says Chuck Runyon, co-founder and CEO of Self Esteem Brands, the parent company to Anytime Fitness, Bar Method, Basecamp, and Waxing in the City. Anytime, the largest of the brands, has nearly 5,000 franchise locations on seven continents—all of which had to shut down over the course of about five weeks due to Covid-19.

For a company based in Minnesota, Anytime Fitness was early to realize the potentially catastrophic threat of the coronavirus because of its clubs in China. But even as those locations shut down, Runyon says, “We thought it would be contained. After Anytime’s 20 clubs in Italy closed, “it escalated quickly.” In the U.S., Missouri clubs were the first to close and then every day, every week, came another. “Like dominoes.”

“In all the years we’ve sat around in meetings of what if…never did any of us anticipate shutting down nearly 5,000 clubs around in the world in five weeks.” But since they have, Runyon says he wants to make the most of the unprecedented experience. “Let’s learn, let’s adapt, and let’s be better because of it.”


2021 White Bear Area Chamber of Commerce's Annual Meeting/Inaugural & Business Awards Chuck Runyon, Co-Founder of Anytime Fitness "What we have learned, adapted and now are better because of it" “We do not want to go back to being the way we were,” says Chuck Runyon, co-founder and CEO of Self Esteem Brands, the parent company to Anytime Fitness, Bar Method, Basecamp, and Waxing in the City. Anytime, the largest of the brands, has nearly 5,000 franchise locations on seven continents—all of which had to shut down over the course of about five weeks due to Covid-19. For a company based in Minnesota, Anytime Fitness was early to realize the potentially catastrophic threat of the coronavirus because of its clubs in China. But even as those locations shut down, Runyon says, “We thought it would be contained. After Anytime’s 20 clubs in Italy closed, “it escalated quickly.” In the U.S., Missouri clubs were the first to close and then every day, every week, came another. “Like dominoes.” “In all the years we’ve sat around in meetings of what if…never did any of us anticipate shutting down nearly 5,000 clubs around in the world in five weeks.” But since they have, Runyon says he wants to make the most of the unprecedented experience. “Let’s learn, let’s adapt, and let’s be better because of it.”
WBACC News Linc - copy of WBACC NewsLinc Week of March 22, 2021