Muscling In

Franchise pumps up Bay Area

(Tuesday, February 27, 2007) - SPORTS nutrition retailer Max Muscle plans to muscle its way into the Bay Area, opening 30 more retail outlets here in the next five years.
Much of that responsibility will fall on the well-sculpted shoulders of Mark Sarale, a Max Muscle franchisee and regional director.

"I'm looking to put stores in Oakland, Antioch, Fairfield, Santa Rosa, Hayward, San Leandro, Livermore, Vacaville and Concord," said Sarale, whose muscular physique appears monthly in the magazine Max Sport & Fitness, given to Max Muscle shoppers.

Sarale has been a Max Muscle franchisee for 11 years with one store each in Stockton, Modesto and Turlock. As regional director for the Anaheim-based franchise operation, he has control over franchises in the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Solano, Yolo, Calaveras and Amador.

The 45-year-old entrepreneur previously worked as a sales representative for Laura Scudder's potato chips. Apparently, he was converted from trans fat to triceps.

Max Muscle sells nutritional supplements from vitamins to proteins in different forms, such as powders and tablets. Many of the products aim to enhance muscle development or control weight.

"We have to get good franchisees in the stores. We do background checks, including their credit ratings, and it helps if they have had some health, nutrition or exercise training," Sarale said.

One of Sarale's new franchisees, Grant Thomas, opened a store earlier this month in


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Dublin. Thomas invested $60,000 out-of-pocket and received a $140,000 loan.
The company said the total investment to open a franchise can range from





$155,000 to $285,000 for the franchise fee, working capital, inventory and turnkey operation. Many, like Thomas, pay a down payment and look to a lender for the balance.

Thomas, 35, was previously a FedEx ground contractor in Lodi and delivered to a Max Muscle store on his normal route.

"I've always been into working out and taking supplements. As a teenager, sports were my passion," he said.

His new Max Muscle store is based at the Dublin Corners Shopping Center, close to a tanning salon, a beauty shop and other complementary enterprises.

"My neighbors have all been very receptive," he said.

Max Muscle already has a handful of other Bay Area stores, including ones in San Leandro, San Mateo and Walnut Creek.

Max Muscle makes its own nutritional products and also sells competing products. It's a much smaller operation than industry leader GNC, General Nutrition Centers, based in Pittsburgh. GNC has more than 4,800 retail locations in the U.S. (including more than 1,000 franchise locations and 1,200 stores within Rite Aid outlets), and about 1,000 international franchised stores.

Founded in 2003, Max Muscle has grown to include more than 100 franchise locations and aims to bulk up with 750 new ones in the next five years.

That may not be an unrealistic aim, according the International Franchise Association, which calculated that retail franchises increased about 35 percent between 2003 in 2005. This excludes food operations. The association's annual convention runs through today in Las Vegas.

Thomas, like other Max Muscle franchisees, trained in Anaheim for two weeks to absorb product knowledge and learn management procedures.

The chain puts candidates through a six-step qualification process before trusting them to open a store.

Marc Kiekenapp, Max Muscle's director of franchise development, projected the chain will talk to "hundreds of people over the next five years" to find the best 20 to 30 people to open new stores here.

Sarale had always been an athlete interested in nutrition and health and he found Max Muscle products well before he invested in a franchise. He's sold on the quality of the brand's protein additive, from which he said he has derived more energy.

"Besides, they taste good," he said of Max Muscle's supplements.

Sarale is confident he will be able to meet his 30-store goal and that royalties from new franchisees will flow to him in due course. He said he will help mentor and advise new franchisees.

"The most important thing for new franchisees to be successful is that they be educated about the products," he said. "Unlike other brands, when you walk into Max Muscle, you know our people know the products."

The chain has also introduced a new medium to better meet customers' nutrition needs.

Max Muscle has introduced television screens into each retail outlet, including a 42-inch plasma TV screen placed near the entrance of each store that features a dietitian offering interactive education about nutrition. Other TVs throughout the store play tapes with information about products.

"People shouldn't be afraid of the word 'muscle,'" Sarale said. "We are after a healthy lifestyle."

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