Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 11

153 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 11 CLUB F I TNESS fitness arena, gradually expanding along the way. Then, in 2015, as Crocker was looking to retire, Club Fitness became an employee-owned business through an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). Joining at around the same time that the company transitioned to employee ownership, Eric Schreimann, the current CEO, has seen Club Fitness go from strength to strength on the back of its employee-owners. “We’re the only employee-owned health club, ‘’ Schreimann says. “We now have 19 locations and in each one, when you see someone wearing the Club Fitness uniform, they’re not just employees – they’re employee-owners. They have a vested interest in the overall success of the company. They have a real sense of pride and ownership. And as we build new clubs, it creates further opportunities for us to bring on additional employee-owners.” By consistently investing in additional locations, Club Fitness now has around 150 employee- owners throughout the St. Louis metro market area, many of which have faced a particularly challenging 18 months. The COVID-19 pandemic forced Club Fitness to close every one of its locations, sending its revenue plummeting to zero. Nevertheless, the community spirit remained unbroken. “We were fortunate to be in a financial position where we could weather the storm,” Schreimann recalls. “We did have to make some tough decisions and put some staff on furlough, but we were still able to pay for 100 percent of their health insurance. Our goal was to work with our local government and our local department of health to put a strategy together to reopen gyms safely. As well as working with the St. Louis County Department of Health to get our health clubs reopened, we partnered with the Red Cross to host several blood drives at our shuttered facilities.”