Paul Flick is ready for a new challenge. Since forming Premium Service Brands in 2006, Flick has built a portfolio of nine home services brands and he sees an opportunity to repeat the process in a new industry.
Flick bought four-unit Pūrvelo Cycle from founder Kristin Watson in June and in September began franchising the boutique indoor cycling concept under his recently created Extraordinary Brands. He said he’s in the letter of intent stage to acquire a second fitness brand, this one out of Tennessee, with a goal to build a “multi-franchisor platform with shared membership across boutique fitness and wellness brands.”
“The intent is to do a couple acquisitions every year so it’s managed growth, just like we’re doing at Premium Service Brands,” he said. Flick founded 360 Degree Painting and over the years started and acquired brands to expand PSB’s portfolio to also include ProLift Garage Doors, Maid Right, Kitchen Wise and Closet Wise, Renew Crew, Rubbish Works Junk Removal, The Grout Medic, House Doctors and RooterMan.
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Paul Flick started Premium Service Brands in 2006 and is now looking to acquire franchises in the fitness and wellness segments.
While the nature of those concepts requires the services to be brought to the customer “and their experience can be difficult to manage,” in fitness, beauty or wellness, “the customers come to you,” he said, an appealing prospect when offering a product or service. Boutique fitness “obviously fell on some pretty hard times” during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Flick believes the segment will bounce back.
“My personal opinion is people want to go to a gym to work out with others, not be down in a basement working out on a Peloton.”
Like Premium Service Brands, Pūrvelo is based in Charlottesville, Virginia, and when Flick learned its founder was looking to sell, he jumped in. Watson, who launched the company in 2015 and later added a clothing line, retained a minority interest and is “very much staying involved in the brand,” said Flick.
Susquehanna Private Capital, which in 2021 made a minority investment in Premium Service Brands, is not involved in this new venture, Flick noted. “I’m financing this on my own,” he said. He will continue as CEO of Premium Service Brands and added his focus “remains 100 percent” on that company. He brought in his former president of franchise development, Allison Zorich, to lead Pūrvelo as president and plans to announce the addition of other leaders for Extraordinary Brands early next year.
Allison Zorich is president of Pūrvelo Cycle, which started franchising in September.
Zorich, who spent almost nine years in business development at Guidant Financial before moving into franchise development, said she was intrigued by Pūrvelo and its potential for franchise growth because the class environment isn’t competitive, unlike other group fitness workouts. “It’s like a Miami nightclub in the dark with no metrics, no mirrors, no leaderboards, no competition,” she said.
Zorich credited Watson for creating a unique model with different class styles, some incorporating free weights. “People go in, do their thing, feel good about coming in and getting to be part of this community,” she said, adding that after her first class, “I was just drenched.”
Franchise locations, with a footprint of 1,800 to 2,200 square feet, will be built using a new store design incorporating a merchandise wall, lockers and space for people to mingle before and after class. The four existing studios “are very eclectic,” said Zorich, and one of her goals was to bring uniformity to Pūrvelo’s look and feel as it begins franchise sales. She also noted while Watson focused on college markets—the other three studios are in Auburn, Alabama, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Athens, Georgia—development going forward will include urban and suburban markets.
“College towns are great and we definitely won’t rule them out,” she continued, but those locations operated seasonally when classes were in session, “so we really want to see what we can do with 365 days a year.”
The cost of investment for a Pūrvelo Cycle location is $358,920 to $458,320, and in addition to signing single-unit agreements the brand is also offering an area development model.
A rendering of Pūrvelo Cycle’s new studio design featuring the brand’s illuminated wheel logo.