At Ritual, a big push to go global

BRAD Robinson is a busy man these days. The chief executive officer of Singapore-based boutique gym Ritual is overseeing the brand's expansion in countries like the United States, Spain and Switzerland, and even as far-flung as Brazil and South Africa.

Here in Singapore, Ritual - a gym with its signature 20-minute HIIT (high-intensity, interval training) workout that allows clients to get their exercise done and dusted in a jiffy - has branches at Robinson Road, Raffles Place and Holland Village. Mr Robinson and his team are now busy looking for suitable venues to open two more gyms here.

BT Weekend met the 40-year-old American and former mixed martial arts competitor at Ritual's new head office at Bukit Pasoh Road to find out more about his ambitious expansion plans.

Tell me more about the overseas growth plans for Ritual this year.

We're now in Brazil, South Africa and Spain. We just opened our second branch in Johannesburg, and soon we will open in Los Angeles and Zurich. We are also growing in Madrid and Barcelona. In total, we have 22 gyms that are either open or about to open in 2019. The three gyms that we have right now in Singapore are all owned by us, but every single Ritual gym elsewhere is run by a franchisee.

Why do you think the franchising model works?

Franchises outperform company-owned stores in every segment of the market, be it fitness, restaurants, hotels or other industries.

They perform better because if someone invests a lot of money to franchise a brand, that person is going to care a lot more about executing the project, making it successful and keeping the customers happy.

A business owner is always more motivated and involved than a salaried employee. All our franchise owners are also either active or former customers of Ritual.

How do you ensure the quality is there?

Of course, there will be concerns about maintaining quality standards, and these are valid. But we don't sign deals with everyone, and we've walked away from more people than we can remember.

We sign with entrepreneurs and professionals and institutions who have the know-how to manage a company. We audit the heck out of them, and there are regular overt and covert quality checks.

The rating system for our classes and gyms around the world is also completely transparent, and every piece of feedback will go straight to the HQ in Singapore. Our support team goes through every piece of feedback and then we work directly with the franchisee.

The concept will always remain the same - you will get training that combines both cardio and strength training into a single, efficient 20-minute session. That's our identity. As they say, the fries have to taste the same at every McDonald's.

The countries that Ritual are in right now are quite diverse and spread-out. That's quite unique for a young startup, considering that Brazil, for instance, is a 30-hour fight from Singapore.

We opened our first gym in Singapore back in 2013, and the second one didn't open until 2016. We wanted to get the formula and the model right before scaling up.

When the first offer came in from an investor in Brazil, it turned out they were the right partner for us. They are capable, well-connected, have plenty of capital and more importantly, they believe in the product. They even translated the entire business to Portuguese.

We believe in Brazil, and the market there is huge. Brazil is going through the exact same shift that Singapore is going through right now, with many people moving from the chain gyms to studio fitness.

There are so many options for people to get their workout these days, so why do you think the Ritual model is sustainable and can be successful?

I think flexibility is the key. We're the only gym that runs a class every 30 minutes, all day long. That's important for many of our customers whose schedule may change five or six times or more during the day.

When you have a hectic day at work, fitness is typically the first thing to get squeezed off the calendar. It's expendable and the easiest. There are no consequences, except perhaps your own guilt that you have to deal with. Say you have booked a 12pm session, but something comes up at the last-minute and you can only make it later in the day, there's always a class taking place and you can exercise at a time that suits you. We provide the attire, and you don't even need to bring a pair of shoes because the workouts can be done barefoot.