AUSTIN, Tex. (BRAIN) — Endurance House locations in Jacksonville, Florida, and Laguna Niguel, California, have recently closed. The two stores were independently owned and operated franchises, each with an average four to six employees and around 3,000 square feet in size. The assets of the Laguna Niguel store are currently being sold at auction.
Endurance House owners Jamie and Tara Osborn founded Endurance House as a single store in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2008 and launched the franchise model in 2011, opening 13 more stores in California, Florida, Georgia, Colorado, Indiana, Missouri and Wisconsin.
“We’re not immune to challenges in the industry, that’s for sure. We’ve done some things well but we’ve also had our business setbacks,” Jamie Osborn said. “It’s tough to grow a national brand with multiple stores without any setbacks, particularly when there are some significant industry headwinds. We hate it when we have setbacks and want earnestly for every store to do great and blow it out of the water, which isn’t necessarily realistic. Closures happen, but it doesn’t mean the business model is flawed. We have many stores currently performing at an extremely high level and exceeding sales expectations.”
As part of the franchise deal, franchisees receive help with site selection and leasing, brand graphics and visual identity, training and guidance in running the business, including systems and protocols for individual store owners to execute.
The Jacksonville, Florida, store opened in early 2016 and closed in February. The Laguna Niguel store in Orange County, California, opened in 2015 and closed in May. Osborn said a number of factors contributed to the closures of both stores.
“Our model really depends on having successful triathlon and footwear components and both categories doing well and being productive. But the retail environment has changed rapidly over the last five years, and how stores communicate with customers and market themselves has also changed,” he said. “Adaptation to social media and getting out of old mentalities of opening the doors in the morning and just serving the customer. Changing those mindsets isn’t easy. You have to be a community driver in retail today, creating a fun factor and making stores a hub. So we are learning from this, and we know it has to go beyond ‘man, I really like this sport and I want to open a store’.”
