Shannon Hudson co-founded 9Round Kickboxing in 2008.
9Round Kickboxing bought iLoveKickboxing, creating a holding company with a not-yet-released name.
Shannon and Heather Hudson founded 9Round in 2008. “If it’s the vertical of kickboxing and boxing, I’m the guy,” Shannon Hudson said.
The all-cash transaction was announced earlier this month. “We’re blessed that we have zero debt on the company,” Hudson said. “We’re very disciplined with our money.”
The deal allows 9Round to continue making kickboxing more accessible to the general public, Hudson said.
ILKB has 56 locations in North America and 9Round has nearly 500 studios worldwide in 41 states and 17 countries, such as New Zealand, Qatar and Guatemala. The brands differ because 9Round advertises a half-hour, trainer guided format that uses nine workout stations, while iLoveKickboxing uses a more traditional workout class format.
“With iLoveKickboxing, it’s more built on community because it’s a class,” Hudson said.
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This is the first acquisition for 9Round, but Hudson says he hopes it’s the first of many. He called the process “exciting” and said he learned lessons throughout the dealmaking process, one of which is the importance of patience.
“I’m not a super patient person. I don’t think many entrepreneurs are,” Hudson said. “I just want to get it done.”
The dealmaking process “reinvigorated” the 9Round team, Hudson said.
The kickboxing franchise purchased ILKB with the intent to keep each brand separate. 9Round kept four of ILKB’s corporate team members.
“They’ve helped carry the load some, but then my team here will help carry the majority of the load because we’ve got a little bit of bandwidth,” Hudson said.
Putting the two brands under the same platform allows 9Round to cut costs by using the technology and processes already implemented at 9Round.
Priorities for ILKB, though, are updating the company’s website, mission statement and class formatting. Hudson is talking to ILKB franchisees to hear their thoughts and working to put together a franchise advisory council for the brand.
“We’re going to continue the learning phase for a couple months and then we can put this action plan together,” Hudson said. “Let’s start tackling this, this, this and this, but it’s gonna be a tough, hard turn, but much needed.”