24 Hour Fitness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
24 Hour Fitness is the largest privately owned and operated fitness center chain. The company is headquartered in San Ramon, California with over 16,000 employees. Its founder is Mark S. Mastrov and its current CEO is Carl Liebert III. It began as a one-club operation in 1983. 24 Hour Fitness has about 3 million members and 385 clubs in 16 states and four countries in Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia) through its wholely owned subsidiary California Fitness. In addition, California Wow Xperience Pcl is a public company formed to get around foreign ownership requirements abroad (Thailand (9 clubs), Korea (4 clubs)) and is run by a former 24 Hour Fitness executive and is the largest shareholder, and has member swap agreements with 24 Hour Fitness and California Fitness members. 24 Hour Fitness plans to have more than 1000 clubs in the next five years.
In 1994, 24 Hour Nautilus partnered with a large investment banking firm. Soon thereafter the Southern California-based Family Fitness Centers chain was acquired and renamed 24 Hour Fitness.
In 2004, 24 Hour Fitness became a sponsor of the 2004-2008 United States Olympic teams. The sponsorship grants memberships to some U.S. Olympic hopefuls and includes upgrades to some U.S. Olympic Training Centers across the country including renovated the facility in Colorado Springs, CO in 2004 to be followed by Lake Placid, NY and Chula Vista, CA.
24 Hour Fitness worked with NBC to develop a reality show, "The Biggest Loser", which featured 12 overweight contestants competing to lose weight over several months. The show aired in late 2004 and early 2005, and again in late 2006.
[edit] Controversy and criticism
[edit] Class action lawsuits
On February 7, 2005 a class action lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court for the County of San Francisco (Case No. CGC-05-438478) alleging 24 Hour Fitness conducted illegal business practices. The allegations include the collection of dues beyond the term of monthly membership agreements. Other allegations include failure to comply with statutory print size requirements on agreements. State law requires font sizes on contracts to be of size 14 or greater. The lawsuit pertains to those who entered into monthly membership agreements after January 1, 2002 and before January 1, 2006. The lawsuit is set to go to trial on April 2, 2007. On December 25, 2006, members of the Class were notified.[1]
On November 10, 2005 a class action lawsuit was filed in the San Francisco County Superior Court regarding allegations of fraud and illegal business practices. In the lawsuit (Case No. CGC-05-446492), the plaintiff alleges "24 Hour Fitness took money from its monthly membership customers by continuing to withdraw money from customers’ checking or credit card accounts after the customers gave notice of their desire to quit." [2] 24 Hour Fitness is currently defending the case in San Francisco Superior Court.
