History
Crunch was founded in 1989 as a fitness studio by Doug Levine, a former stockbroker. The clubs became popular by appealing to young upscale members and featuring heavy promotions and marketing with some humorous and sexual connotations. They were initially profitable in large part due to successful promotion of logo merchandise sales within the clubs. They featured some unusual classes such as pole dancing, bicycle-based yoga, coed wrestling, an "Abs, Thighs and Gossip" class run by a drag queen, and Capoeira. Although the classes were later standardized across various locations, some popular offbeat classes remained, such as dodgeball and karaoke bicycling.
Bally Total Fitness bought Crunch in 2001 for $90 million in cash and stock. Initially intending to double the size to 40 gyms, Bally found the business unprofitable and was unable to get out of long-term leases in poorly performing locations. In 2005 Bally's sold Crunch to Angelo, Gordon & Co., a private equity firm, for $45 million. In May, 2009 the chain filed for bankruptcy, as part of a reorganization by which it was acquired by New Evolution Fitness Company ("NEFC"), a company founded by Mark Mastrov (co-founder of 24 hour fitness), Jim Rowley, and Dean Moloney some of the Angelo, Gordon principals. NEFC was developing plans in 2009 to open a series of UFC-related gyms. The first of the UFC gyms opened in November, 2009 in Concord, California, with other gyms planned for Montreal, Canada and Hawaii.
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