GRANTS PASS, OR -- Just three months after Casey Conrad left Healthy Inspirations, the company she founded in 2000, one of the company’s franchisees, Scott Draper, has purchased the assets of the women’s weight loss and fitness company from Jim Rowe. Rowe had merged Slender Lady, the company he bought in 2005, with Healthy Inspirations in early 2007.
“For over five years the parent companies of Healthy Franchising LLC have been working diligently on improving our offering of weight loss and wellness for women,” Draper said in an e-mailed statement to Club Industry’s Fitness Business Pro. “Although we enjoyed success from day one in both of our Healthy Inspirations centers, we have learned much over the years, let go of those things that did not work, added new operations and offerings that do work, and ultimately now have scalable, working weight loss and wellness models that operate smoothly and efficiently, producing consistent and substantial profits.”
Draper did not disclose the purchase price for the assets or whether Rowe will continue to have a role in the new company.
In addition, he did not comment on whether litigation pending against Slender Lady (Healthy Inspirations was attached to this lawsuit earlier this year) related to Rowe’s alleged nonpayment of money to franchisees from a previous lawsuit settlement might affect the new owners.
During the past year, Rowe had focused the company’s growth at the regional level, opening 10 regions across the country including Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Diego, Tampa and cities in Hawaii and New Mexico, according to Rowe. Rowe had stated that he expected to open three to five additional regions by the end of this year.
Draper did not offer specifics on his expansion plans. He did say, “Our mission is to grow the brand in such a way as to give tangible meaning to the word wellness, by sharing our model and focusing on the success of our stakeholders, whether they be client, franchisee, regional developer, vendor, media or other fellow professionals within the wellness industries.”