Planet Fitness - Q1 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Planet Fitness Q1 quarterly earnings call. My name is Glenn. I will be the operator for today's call. If you would like to ask a question during the presentation, you may do so by pressing star one on your phone keypad. I will now hand you over to your host, Stacey Caravella, to begin. Stacy, please go ahead.

Stacey Caravella (VP of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone. Speaking on today's call will be Planet Fitness Chief Executive Officer, Chris Rondeau, and Chief Financial Officer, Tom Fitzgerald. Also joining us is Edward Hymes, President and Chief Operating Officer. They will all be available for questions during the Q&A session following the prepared remarks. Today's call is being webcast live and recorded for replay. Before I turn the call over to Chris, I'd like to remind everyone that the language on forward-looking statements included in our earnings release also applies to our comments made during the call. Our release can be found on our website, investor.planetfitness.com, along with any reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures mentioned on the call with their corresponding GAAP measures. Now I'll turn the call over to Chris.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Thank you, Stacy, thank you everyone for joining us for Planet Fitness's Q1 earnings call. We had a strong start to 2023 as we capitalize on the tailwinds behind the consumer focus on overall health and wellness. We believe we continue to be well-positioned to deliver disruptive growth with our high-quality, affordable fitness experience. I'm going to cover two topics today. First, Q1's member growth and the resiliency of our model in an inflationary or possibly recessionary environment. I'll discuss our system's continued recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic and how it supports our long-term growth opportunity. Let me address our Q1 membership growth. Our strong momentum from the end of 2022 continued into the first quarter, driving membership to more than 18.1 million, a net increase of more than 1.1 million members.

This Q1 was the first time in four years that an all-important first quarter of membership growth was not interrupted by COVID. We kicked off the year with our Big Fitness Energy campaign that addresses the post-workout positive feeling. It featured our Low E ads that continued to generate great consumer buzz. Prior to COVID, membership growth was the primary driver of our 53 straight quarters of positive same-store sales growth. In Q1, member growth continued to be the primary driver of the 9.9% system-wide same-store sales growth. Our membership growth demonstrates that our high-quality, affordable fitness experience resonates now more than ever as Americans are seeking value in feeling the rising cost of everyday items while they continue to prioritize their health and wellness. Historically, we've seen that our model is resistant to inflationary and recessionary pressures.

It's proving to be true again in this current environment, validated by three key trends. The first trend is our diverse member growth. During the quarter, all age generations surpassed their pre-pandemic population penetration levels. Our strong value in judgment-free, non-intimidating atmosphere also continued to drive people off the couch in Q1, as 40% of our new joins were first-time gym members. The second important trend is our rejoin rate. In Q1, about 30% of our new joins were previous members, compared to about 20% in 2019. We believe this is a really good sign to have former members rejoining faster than they have historically, despite inflationary pressures causing their income to not go as far. The third is our cancel rate, which again indexed below the prior year's rate in the first quarter. This marked the seventh straight quarter of year-over-year cancel rate improvement.

We're also seeing that our members are more committed to fitness than they were pre-pandemic, with higher overall visits per member as all age groups are visiting more frequently than 2019. This is a good sign since non-use is the number one reason why members cancel, so more usage should continue to bode well for our cancel rate. Now to our continued recovery post-COVID and our long-term growth opportunity. We continue to see consistent momentum towards full recovery the longer our stores have been open since the temporary COVID closures. At the end of Q1, more than 50% of our U.S. stores that opened before 2019 are back to or above pre-pandemic membership levels. Additionally, almost 60% are at or above their pre-COVID revenue per store, partly as a result of the price increases that we made last year.

Pre-pandemic, 60% of our full-year net membership gains happened in the first quarter, so an uninterrupted Q1 was huge for the entire system, especially for those stores that opened during the past four years. They had yet to feel the benefit from what has historically been the highest net membership growth quarter. Most of the Black Card members of stores that opened this year and last year are paying the new Black Card price and the increased annual fee, helping to further boost new store profitability. Our growth is fueled by the strength of our collective marketing efforts with our franchisees. We invested more than a quarter of a billion dollars last year to go after the 80% of Americans who do not currently belong to a gym.

Our significant marketing spend enables us to attract someone at the right time when they are ready to start their health and wellness journey. More member growth means more dollars towards advertising funds. It's this flywheel that keeps us well ahead of our competitors with our membership more than 8x greater than the next largest U.S. high-value, low-price brand. We have greater than 60% more stores than our next 17 low-price U.S. competitors combined. Our app and broader digital platform are real differentiators versus the competition as well. To drive even more value to our members, we are leveraging our size and diversity of our member base to partner with our major brands like Shell, Verizon, Sam's Club, Chewy.com, and Puma on perks discounts.

In March, the average redemption savings through the perks program was more than $10, exceeding the cost of our monthly Classic membership. While it's a small % of our members today who engage with our perks offers, we will continue to partner with brands to offer more and better discounts to benefit more of our members. Our confidence in our 4,000+ long-term store growth opportunity is strengthened by our systems recovery and our historical ability to achieve a greater penetration of each successive generation. We understand that fitness can be intimidating, and we continue to be hyper-focused on breaking down the barriers of all ages. We want to be the fitness brand people think of first when they are ready to start their wellness journey, regardless of their age. Generational trends are also fueling the confidence about the future.

Gen Zs and millennials continue to lead our joins, with over 9% of each group now a member of Planet Fitness. That's with the Gen Zs who are over the age of 15. We will continue to have Gen Zs age into our prospect member pool with Gen Alphas only a few years behind. To further strengthen our brand's appeal with Gen Zs, earlier this week, we announced the return of our High School Summer Pass program. We are excited to be able to run this program for the 2nd consecutive year. It's largely similar to last year's, including the seamless online registration process. We had more than 3.5 million teen participants in the High School Summer Pass last year, along with 2.3 million parents and guardians that signed them up.

At the end of the first quarter, more than 600,000 teens and their parents or guardians had joined as paying members for a conversion rate of greater than 10%. We continue to outpace our 2019 conversion rate, the last time we ran a similar program. We recently republished our 2022 environmental, social, and governance report, which demonstrates how we are delivering our purpose to create a more judgment-free Planet where health and wellness is within reach of all. Looking to the future, I am confident that we will continue to be a differentiated and disruptive force in the health and wellness industry as we have been for over 30 years. We believe that affordable fitness is essential, especially today, as research continues to show the other benefits of working out to overall health and wellness besides weight loss.

Our purpose of enhancing people's lives and creating a healthier world sets us, our franchisees, and our shareholders up for long-term success. I'll now turn the call over to Tom.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Thanks, Chris. Good morning, everyone. In the first quarter, we continued to demonstrate the positive attributes of our asset-light business model. We grew our members and store footprint despite inflationary headwinds that Chris discussed, and we invested in near and longer-term growth areas such as technology infrastructure and building out a small, dedicated international team. Additionally, we continued to generate significant free cash flow, and we repurchased $25 million of our shares. Subsequent to the quarter, we repurchased another $25 million, bringing our total number of shares repurchased to date to approximately 625,000, bought at an average price of approximately $79.50. I'll cover our first quarter results. All of my comments regarding our quarter performance will be comparing Q1 2023 to Q1 of last year, unless otherwise noted.

We opened 36 new stores compared to 37 last year. We delivered same-store sales growth of 9.9% in the first quarter. Franchisee same-store sales grew 9.7%, and our corporate store same-store sales increased 12.1%. As a reminder, same-store sales for the Sunshine Fitness franchise stores that we acquired in Q1 of last year were reflected for two-thirds of the quarter in the corporate store segment but were in system-wide same-store sales for the entire quarter. Approximately 75% of our Q1 comp increase was driven by net member growth, with the balance being rate growth. Black Card penetration was 62.0%, a decrease of 100 basis points.

The decrease reflects that we had a highly successful January sale this year for our Classic Card compared to last year, when our sale was negatively impacted by the Omicron strain, as well as the impact from strong Gen Z member growth, including High School Summer Pass participants. For the first quarter, total revenue was $222.2 million compared to $186.7 million. The increase was driven by revenue growth across the franchise and corporate-owned store segments, partially offset by a decrease in the equipment segment. The 15.7% increase in franchise segment revenue was primarily due to an increase in royalties and National Ad Fund revenue. The royalty increase was primarily driven by same-store sales growth, royalties on annual fees, and new stores.

Partially offsetting the increase was a decrease of approximately $900,000 as a result of the Sunshine stores moving out of the franchise segment. For the first quarter, average royalty rate was 6.5%, up from 6.4%. The 39% increase in revenue for corporate-owned store segment was primarily driven by the Sunshine Fitness transaction as well as same-store sales growth and new store openings. Equipment segment revenue decreased 22%. While new store openings were in line year-over-year, more of this year's openings had equipment placed in Q4 of last year, leading to lower new store equipment sales. We completed 18 new store placements compared to 33. The decrease in revenue was partially offset by higher equipment sales to existing franchisee-owned stores. For the quarter, replacement equipment accounted for approximately 58% of total equipment revenue.

Our cost of revenue, which primarily relates to the cost of equipment sales to franchisee-owned stores, amounted to $19.4 million compared to $22.4 million. Store operations expenses which relate to our corporate-owned store segment increased to $66.0 million from $47.5 million, primarily due to the additional stores from the Sunshine acquisition, which were only reflected as corporate stores for approximately half of Q1 last year. SG&A for the quarter was $27.8 million compared to $30.8 million. This decrease was primarily the result of transaction fees incurred in higher expenses related to the Sunshine acquisition. National Advertising Fund expense was $17.0 million compared to $14.5 million. Net income was $24.8 million, adjusted net income was $36.4 million, and adjusted net income per diluted share was $0.41.

A reconciliation of adjusted net income to GAAP net income can be found in the earnings release. Adjusted EBITDA was $90.2 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 40.6%, compared to $76.7 million with adjusted EBITDA margin of 41.1%. A reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to GAAP net income can also be found in the earnings release. By segment, franchise adjusted EBITDA was $67.9 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 73.2%. Corporate store adjusted EBITDA was $34.1 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 32.2%. Equipment adjusted EBITDA was $5.6 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 23.5%. Turning to the balance sheet.

As of March 31, 2023, we had total cash and cash equivalents of $523 million, compared to $472.5 million on December 31, 2022, which included $62.6 million and $62.7 million of restricted cash, respectively, in each period. As I mentioned earlier, year-to-date through April, we used $50 million to repurchase shares, which includes $25 million in Q1 and an additional $25 million in April. Total long-term debt, excluding deferred financing costs, was $2.0 billion as of March 31, 2023, and consisting of our four tranches of fixed rate securitized debt that carries a blended interest rate of approximately 4.0%. We completed a refinancing and upsizing of a portion of our debt when we purchased Sunshine Fitness last February.

At the end of Q1 last year, our leverage ratio was 6.2x net debt to LTM adjusted EBITDA. With the increase in membership across our system and the growth of our highly profitable corporate store portfolio, our leverage ratio declined to 4.6x at the end of Q4 last year. At the end of the first quarter of 2023, it was down to 4.0x. We expect our net debt to LTM adjusted EBITDA to continue to decrease for the remainder of the year. Finally, to our 2023 outlook. As a reminder, our view assumes there is no material resurgence of COVID or similar unforeseen dramatic circumstances that result in a significant change in membership behaviors or impact our supply chain. In our earnings press release this morning, we reiterated our growth targets for the year.

I'd like to address our placement target for 2023. We continue to expect new equipment placements of approximately 160. As a reminder, these placements are only in franchise-owned locations. Our new stores for the year will include corporate-owned stores, of which we expect to build a similar number to last year or approximately 15. Since we provided this target in February, we haven't seen any relief from headwinds that will likely keep franchisees from building ahead of their required obligations, including HVAC availability and elevated cost to build. The substantial increase in interest rates over the past year is also a headwind to new store growth. Given this, we believe that 160 new equipment placements is likely the high end of what we expect to achieve this year.

Everything considered, in a somewhat difficult economic environment, we are encouraged by our member growth in the first quarter and the overall resiliency of our model, demonstrated by our strong same-store sales and profit growth. We believe that the size and scale advantage of our brand will continue to deliver value to all of our members, franchisees, and other stakeholders. I'll now turn the call back to the operator to open it up for Q&A.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your phone is muted locally. We have our first question comes from Randal Konik from Jefferies. Randal, your line is now open.

Randal Konik (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, thanks a lot. Good morning, everybody. I guess first what I wanted to ask, maybe Chris, if you could just go back over some of the Summer Pass statistics, that would be super helpful. I don't know if last year was everything digitized as it relates to the Summer Pass last year, or is it all kind of now digitized going into this year so that, A, we get more, probably more members signing up and their parents, signing them up. Second, continue to see higher conversion coming out of this Summer Pass later this year. Just wanna get your perspective there.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah, sure, Randal. Good morning. It was digitized pretty much the exact same way as it is this year. It's just slightly different, but otherwise it's very, very much the same. I think that the benefit we have this year, as opposed to last is, as you probably remember, the last time we had done it was 2019, and then COVID hit. This is the first time we've done it consecutively, you know? What's gonna be interesting now is the teens that didn't age out.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

The seniors are gone now, but now the new freshman class has come in. All of the other ages, the four grades that are still in it, that still have the app from last year, we still have the ability now to re-market to them either by email or in-app messaging. We already have a strong pipeline of leads, which we really didn't have last year because the last time we ran it was 2019 and, you know, three years later, half of them are already gone, you know. It wasn't digitized. It'll be interesting this year of the year that we're able to really re-market to them to grab some quick momentum in the sign-up process, which is already underway and we kicks off for usage in the gym starting May 15th.

The other thing that's a little bit different this year, which should actually help the process even easier, is the minor join flow, where the parent/guardians are able to execute the parent/guardian waiver without having to actually physically come into the store to do so. That is just makes it that much more seamless.

Randal Konik (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Super helpful. I guess, Tom, I wanted to just jump off, you know, one of the final statements you made about the placements, I think 160 at the high end. Can you give us some perspective of how we should be thinking about the range of outcomes around, I guess, unit openings for the balance of the year? I think that's a question we get a lot from investors is, you know, how many units are they really gonna open this year? I would just like to get some perspective on how you're thinking about that, you know, for the balance of the year. It'd be super helpful. Thanks.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah, sure thing, Randal. I think, you know, some of the things that we've been talking about, as I said, a few minutes ago, you know, are still there. Certainly the interest rate sort of, the interest rates cumulatively have had an increasing impact on franchisees. It's been a headwind. You know, it's amazing to think here where you sit, you know, SOFR is almost 5%. Last time I looked and a year ago, it was less than 50 basis points. It's been a big move.

I think that as we've talked to franchisees here about their development plans, we just see, and I think we said this a little bit last time, the combination of all those factors that I mentioned have us to where franchisees are just really not building ahead of their schedules on new store development, where they did, you know, quite a bit of that in the past pre-COVID. That's why we said, you know, we think the 160 outlook that we have is likely on the high end. We still think our corporate store growth this year will be pretty close to last year, you know, roughly 14, 15. That would take our total store openings if you combine those two to approximately 175.

You know, as the year goes on, obviously we'll have a firmer view of, the franchisee store openings and our own corporate stores, but that's the best we can call based on how we see it. We didn't want folks really, you know, thinking there might be upside to that because we don't see it much beyond the 160.

Randal Konik (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Can I ask just to finalize and my last question to clarify, is there a thought on what the low end could be, you know, on a 175 on the high end, but just so we know kind of what the minimum might be on the low end?

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah, no, we feel the 160 number is the appropriate number. We really don't range that number. That's our view, you know, has been our view, and we're sticking to it. We just don't see the range going above that.

Randal Konik (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Understood. Thanks so much. Thanks for the help, guys.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

You bet.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Thanks.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Thanks, Randal.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We have our next question comes from Simeon Siegel from BMO Capital Markets. Simeon, your line is now open.

Simeon Siegel (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)

Thanks. Hey, everyone. Morning. Nice job on the ongoing progress.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Thanks, Simeon.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Morning, Simeon.

Simeon Siegel (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)

Guys, given you keep setting the new member records, just any help to how we should think about member growth trajectory next quarter and over the year? I'm sorry if I missed it. Did you say the slightly lower Black Card penetration was a function of more new members signing up at $10, or was it existing Black Card trading down? Realistically, I think you're still nicely above pre-pandemic period penetration. Just any thought on where Black Card penetration looks for the rest of the year? Thanks.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Sure. Sure. Hi, Simeon. It's Chris. On the PF Black Card piece, well, two things are really driving it. One is the real successful $10 sale we had in January this year. Last year's $10 sale, actually at Omicron, so it was a little bit tampered down. The other big piece, which is a good thing in a lot of ways, is it's the younger Gen Zs, so the High School Summer Pass teens, the great performance of them converting and joining the teenage high school-aged teens, they join at very low PF Black Card %. Although the later Gen Z is called the 20 years+ to 25, those have a great PF Black Card %.

it's those younger generations that are joining because the High School Summer Pass that are bringing that number down. If you were to remove the high school age, it's up, upwards of, you know, but pretty much over last year, slightly. the growth, membership growth, we don't really comment on quarter-over-quarter membership growth, but as you know, 60% of our net growth for the year is in the first quarter. April, May tend to be decent months, but, you know, the tail end of the year, really summer and the rest is more treading water time. You know, the new store does add some growth to it. mature stores really don't add a lot of members or any at that matter during the rest of the year.

Simeon Siegel (Managing Director and Senior Analyst)

That is very helpful. Thanks, Chris. Just congrats on having over 50% of clubs above the pre-pandemic memberships. Out of curiosity, why do you think the remainder don't? Do you think there's something post-pandemic structural? Do you think it's just a question of time? Just kind of thinking through from your perspective, where you think that average settles in.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Sure. I'll start and Tom may be able to add to it. I'd say it's mostly just timing. It's, you know, different states were closed different periods of time. Different states had different restrictions, whether it's even though they were open for a while, they actually had still, you know, distance and mask requirements for, you know, many months or a year later. It's more just the timing coming out of it. The more, you know, the longer we go down the road and the time that goes by, the more members they sell and the more clubs that fall into the good bucket, you know.

The good thing with the Black Card increase last year and now the annual fee that the revenue is, as I mentioned on my pre-recorded remarks, is that they, that is outpacing the membership, which is great news.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Simeon, maybe it's Tom, just to build on that. I think consistent with what we've seen all along, the gap to the on an average store basis for stores that were built prior to 2019, which is really what we're looking at here. The gap to their pre-COVID membership peak has continued to narrow. The stores that are above are not just generally above by a couple %, they're above pretty good. To Chris's point, we see it just as a matter of time.

If you look at kind of almost, you know, sort of imagine a map of the country, the stores in the states that are not, that are not fully back or lagging are ones where all of the COVID stuff was just more politicized. I think that has had a, just a lingering effect. It's not that there's a new competitor in that area. It's more just the trough was deeper, so the climb out of the trough is taking longer.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Perfect. Thanks so much, guys. Best of luck for the rest of the year.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah. Thanks, Simeon.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We have our next question comes from Max Rakhlenko from Cowen. Max, your line is now open.

Max Rakhlenko (Director, and Consumer of Retail and Fitness Research Analyst)

Hey, guys. Thanks a lot for taking my question. First, can you speak to your franchise health? How are those conversations going? Separately, just any updates on the situation with the franchisee that lost its exclusivity rights and if other franchisees have stepped up?

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Hey, Max, it's Tom. I'll start. I think, maybe just to talk more broadly about things, and we talked about interest rates here a little bit. You know, as I said, 5% today, less than a point, about a year ago. You know, that definitely has had an impact on some franchisees more than others. I think, you know, the main story here is the model is still very profitable. Many stores with membership and EFTs being at or above pre-COVID levels. We see this in our own stores. You know, the margins are still pretty terrific because the flow through is still the flow through of $0.84 of every new member dollar in dues that are coming in is dropping to the bottom line.

I think the pressure on cash, if you will, to invest is greater, you know, given that now debt service is higher for some of the franchisees, especially some of the PE-backed franchisees. We haven't heard of, and we see the financial information there. These aren't covenant issues. They're really more is there now enough cash to service the debt and then invest the CapEx that's needed in our system. You know, we don't disclose the level of debt in our system, but you'd probably get pretty close if you took the total number of stores, assumed an AUV, you know what the four wall margins generally are. Take a little bit off for their G&A at it for any given franchisee, and you'll get pre...

You know, you'll have a sense of where our total system, EBITDA would be. Assume a level of leverage that's fairly modest, and you end up with a pretty sizable level of debt. At, you know, 4% higher interest rates now, generally, that and $3 million for a new store, you end up with a decent number of stores that are where the cash used to be there to fund it. That's why we say we don't see folks being ahead of their obligations. I know that's a bit of a long-winded answer, but I think here's what's really important. Our franchisees know that the first priority for CapEx is to take care of the existing stores. You have to re-equip, you have to remodel.

If there's not enough money left over, so to speak, to fund new stores, then we're gonna pull their ADAs. At that point, you know, and we're talking more the PE-backed ones here. At that point, they have a decision to make to put more money in to fund the new store growth, which will have, you know, value or lose their ADA, and that will have an outsized impact on their value and their multiple when they choose to exit because the pipeline will not be there. You know, we think that different PE firms may make different decisions.

At the end of the day, if we pull the ADAs, we have still a waiting list of former franchisees who wanna get back in, whether they're in the franchisee that we talked about last time, where they, it's a definitely different situation. In these cases, which we haven't found yet, but if they come up, they'll be able to buy the ADA, which is actually much more attractive to them because then they can develop the entire area. Yeah, we'll see how it plays out. As you may know, we haven't sold a franchise in quite a while in the U.S. We don't think we need to necessarily sell it because there's a list of folks who left the system, tried to invest in other things as they tell us, and haven't found the returns.

Again, the model is still good. It's just a question of, is the capital structure, and now with the higher interest rates, allowing them to have all the capital to invest and service the debt. If they can't, then they have a decision to make, and so do we. That's how we see it. You know, it, We'll see how it plays out. Hopefully that helps provide a sort of a broader picture of how we see things.

Max Rakhlenko (Director, and Consumer of Retail and Fitness Research Analyst)

No, Tom, that's incredibly helpful. Oh, go ahead.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

No, sorry, I forgot your second question, Max. The franchisee that we talked about, our agreement with them is finalized. We're not disclosing the terms, but now, we have contacted some of those franchisees who are on the waiting list, as I mentioned, to say, "Here are some of the territories that you can go, explore to find new store opportunities." We're having those discussions, and there's a lag there, as we mentioned last time. It's, you know, Some may know the markets that are available, some may not, so they have to, you know, do some spade work there. That is now the documents that we're waiting to sign are now signed, the agreements are finalized and we're moving forward with the plan.

Edward Hymes (President and COO)

Yeah. This is Edward. I'd say that also, in addition to that, what Tom said, we've yet signed the agreement. Given we're several months into the year, you know, expecting new store development from that primarily to lead into 2024 and beyond.

Max Rakhlenko (Director, and Consumer of Retail and Fitness Research Analyst)

Got it, guys. That's very helpful. Tom, quick follow-up to that, and then I have another pretty quick separate question. How likely are you at this point to reopen the franchise to former franchisees? Like, is that something that you're really leaning towards, or do you think that there's potentially still enough interest from other franchisees that are currently in the system?

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Probably both, Max. It depends on adjacencies and, I think, you know, there are a number of franchisees in our system who are pretty big who, you know, I'd say manage with a much more modest capital structure. They have more dry powder, more flexibility there, so they may be interested. I think, as you know, and we've had a just a lot of interest from outside the system, inside the system, former franchisees. We don't think it'll be a question of interest. It's just a matter of timing and letting things play out.

Edward Hymes (President and COO)

I'd also add that you know, we're open on the international side as well.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah.

Max Rakhlenko (Director, and Consumer of Retail and Fitness Research Analyst)

Yep. Okay. No, that's helpful. Just quickly, can you comment on how much the Halo partnership helped contribute to member growth in 1Q? Are you now looking to replace that with something similar potentially in the connected fitness space?

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

It didn't, this March, sale didn't quite perform as good as membership-wise as the November sale did. It, you know, I didn't say it was a huge driver necessarily, but it was unfortunate how it turned out. Thankfully, we're pleased that Amazon has chosen to do the right thing, I guess, and make good and give everybody an $80 Amazon gift card for those who subscribe to it. Their Amazon Halos will all work till the end of July 31st. They'll receive those gift cards to use it on their website. It's a good news that they've made good for the customer. We've also done the right thing where it was a commitment membership.

We're gonna waive the commitment for these members so that, you know, come July, if they so choose that it's, you know, they're not pleased with the outcome, that they're not tied into a contract for 12 months. It's the right thing to do for the customer, and that's the direction we're taking there. We don't generally feel a huge impact here. As far as your question about teaming with another one-

Max Rakhlenko (Director, and Consumer of Retail and Fitness Research Analyst)

Got it. Okay.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Yeah. As far as teaming up with another one, you know, it's always opportunistic if things come along and seem like it makes sense, but not running towards the next option, no.

Max Rakhlenko (Director, and Consumer of Retail and Fitness Research Analyst)

Got it. Okay, guys. Thanks a lot. Best regards.

Edward Hymes (President and COO)

Sure, Max. Thank you.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Thanks, Max.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. With our next question comes from Chris O'Cull from Stifel. Chris, your line is now open.

Christopher O'Cull (Managing Director, and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thanks. Tom, first I had a follow-up question to an earlier one. I know you've deferred the majority of the development obligations for that one large franchisee, but have you needed to do that for any other groups?

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

No. We have not rewritten area development agreements to restage them for anyone else.

Christopher O'Cull (Managing Director, and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Perfect. Then, I had a question about the equipment, the guidance that the equipment placements will likely be, I think you said towards the lower end of the 160 units this year. I'm just curious, does this affect the company's goal of averaging 200 annual unit openings over the next three years?

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah, Chris, just to, I may have misheard you, but the 160, what we're saying is the high, you know, we see that as the high end of the range that, not the low end of the range. You know, I think, as we sit here today, we talked, may have talked about this last time, as I mentioned, combined with new stores for corporate, which we think will be pretty close to last year, 14, 15. You know, that gets us to about 175 new stores this year. 25 off the straight average, if you will.

I think at Investor Day, we said we didn't see ourselves, back in November, we didn't see ourselves, hitting the 200 this year, which was reflected in our outlook. We're really not that far off from where we thought we would be, you know, in the grand scheme of the three-year view. I think, so we still feel good about that outlook as we sit here today to add, you know, approximately 600 over the next three years through 2025.

Christopher O'Cull (Managing Director, and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Perfect. Just one last one. The equipment margin, company store margin were both down quite a bit year-over-year. Can you just give a little bit of explanation for the year-over-year change?

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah, sure thing, Chris. The equipment margin, last year, we had a pretty sizable rebate from our primary manufacturer, our contract year runs mid-year to mid-year. It's all once we break through a price tier, the rebate is on all the equipment we've purchased since July 1st. It ends up being a fairly sizable number that gets reflected. We didn't hit that tier here this year, so that's it on the equipment side, sorry. On the corporate sales side, I'd say a couple things. One is we had Sunshine in last year, as you know, for the back half of the quarter.

The higher local marketing spend that we do in our corporate clubs and our franchisees do in January was not reflected in that margin last year, and it ends up being a pretty important impact. That's the primary around that. The secondary is the timing of our April sale this year started at the end of March, so it caused some of the expenses from that sale to hit in Q1 this year, where that wasn't the case last year. The long and short of it is marketing, but there's two components of it there, Chris.

Christopher O'Cull (Managing Director, and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Any color you can provide in terms of what we should expect going forward? I mean, should it be fairly comparable year-over-year going forward? Are there any other rebates or things like that?

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

We really don't provide the... we really don't provide that kind of outlook, but I think if you spool it all up across the segments to what we were guiding and, in terms of top line growth and adjusted EBITDA growth, I think we end up in a pretty good place. We don't provide that kind of detail on our outlook.

Christopher O'Cull (Managing Director, and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Fair enough. Thanks, guys.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Okay.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Thank you very much.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Thank you, Chris.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Well, our next question comes from Jonathan Komp from Baird. Jonathan, your line is now open.

Jonathan Komp (Managing Director, and Senior Research Analyst)

Yeah. Hi. Thank you. Good morning. Just maybe a bit of a follow-up, Tom. Can you give any more color as you look at the openings throughout 2023 here? Any thoughts on weighting of openings Q2 in the back half? Just, you know, how much visibility do you have based on agreements or LOIs in place today for the, you know, to get to the 160 on the franchise placement side?

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah. Hey, Jon. So I think, you know, not atypically our openings will be back-end, you know, loaded. So probably, you know, closer to the historical spread across the quarters there, plus or minus. And we really don't provide, you know, the specifics on the stages of our pipeline. But, you know, obviously that goes into all of our internal discussions and and franchisee discussions to ultimately get to where we got to, which is to affirm the 160, but to say it's likely the high end of the range.

Jonathan Komp (Managing Director, and Senior Research Analyst)

Okay. Then maybe I'll just one follow-up. Not to be too specific, but just so we don't end up mismodeling a quarter again. You know, I think you had 29 new openings on the franchise side last year. Is that... You know, would you expect to be kind of near or a little below that this year for Q2 and then more back weighting? I'm just trying to clarify your comments around the weighting.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

I think we'll probably be closer to that number in Q2.

Jonathan Komp (Managing Director, and Senior Research Analyst)

Okay, great. That's really helpful. Then maybe, Chris, I'd love to hear your thoughts, just broader question around, you know, since the last quarterly update, we've had seen some more rules from the FTC around potential subscription rule changes that are coming for the whole industry in any subscription business. Any thoughts just on how Planet is viewing those potential changes and any reaction that you'd have for the business?

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Sure, Jon. Yeah. I'd say on the click-to-cancel piece, we have it now running in several states, one, California, has now been in place since even before COVID, believe it or not. As we've remarked in the past, we do see an initial two, three handful of months increase in cancels, it level sets to a normal state that doesn't have it. The good news is it doesn't seem to really be in effect right now. Most recent state would be Tennessee, I think it is. We're still monitoring that one. That one just started December 31st or 28th or something like that. That one's still too early to tell, that one's still fleshing out.

We haven't seen that big impact there. I think one twisting to the click-to-cancel, I think Planet generally has had one of the easiest cancellation policies in the country, seven-day notice and you're out. Very, very few of our members are even on commitment. If you wanna cancel, you just walk in the door or send us a letter, and you're out within seven days' notice. That's always good, and I think that bodes well for our rejoin rate, right? The high rejoin rates, it's 30% higher than it was pre-COVID. I think, you know, easy in, easy out, especially for a first-time customer. You know, that's one of the things they're thinking about the first. Forget about the price. They wanna know how they get out of the thing, you know?

I think on the auto-renewal piece, that one there is still too early to figure out how they're gonna work it or the specificity regarding whether it or how it applies. I mean, some, they say it's around only memberships on commitment. Is it every year? Is it? It's just a lot there going on, so it's hard to really comment on how that one will turn out or play out if it happens.

John Heinbockel (Senior Managing Director, and Senior Research Analyst)

Yeah, great. That's helpful. Thanks for the color.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Cool. Thanks, Jon.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Thanks, Jon.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We have our next question comes from Rahul Kothari from J.P. Morgan. Rahul, your line is now open.

Rahul Kothari (Equity Research Analyst)

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Chris, you talked about lower cancellation rates for the seventh trade quarter. Can you just discuss like the value of your perks program and how the ramping perks is improving the retention rates for your current members? Going forward, like, do you have a good plan to kind of monetize this, like the data, like how this membership data is captured in your current platform?

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Sure, yes. Yeah, I'd say, you know, the only thing we can see right now, it's still too few members to really, see if it's what's leveraging the lower cancellations, right now. But of the ones that are using it, we still see the same thing we commented last time is 25% of the redemptions are from members that haven't used the club in over 90 days. That's the good news, because our hypothesis is that, you know, we can provide value outside the 4 walls and whether you're using the store or not, a little bit like AAA, we say. You know, even if you're not getting towed, at least you're getting discounts at hotels, you know? If we're providing discounts outside the 4 walls, hopefully people tend to keep the membership because they'll get discounts on other things.

When they're ready to use the club, they come back. That's the one thing. Then, more recent month of March, as I mentioned on my call, is the more recent redemption, people that used it was over $10, which is if you're a Classic membership, you just gained a month of membership. That's our goal. I think, you know, the bigger we get and the more data we capture, the better and more partners with that we're attracting at this point, as you've seen. You know, two, three years ago, we had very, very few, and now we have quite a few beating down the door. I think as the discounts get better and as we have more variety, it can only help the situation.

I think more to come, but it's good to see, you know, the trends we're seeing. I think the only thing I'd say with the cancellation rate right now, as I mentioned, is that in some of my prepared remarks, is that people are working out more. Ever since COVID has started to wean away here and people are getting back to normal life, people that are working out are working out more than they had pre-COVID. That has to be helping the retention piece probably more than anything at this point.

Rahul Kothari (Equity Research Analyst)

That's helpful. Thank you.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

You're welcome.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We have our next question comes from John Heinbockel from Guggenheim Partners. John, your line is now open.

John Heinbockel (Senior Managing Director, and Senior Research Analyst)

Hey guys. Chris, I want to start with the perks, right? Philosophically, how are you attacking that in terms of, you know, how many offers you wanna put on there, doing it seasonally, right? Some of this does appear to have a time component to it. You have a couple that are there for Black Card only. Do you do more of that to try to get people to upgrade to the Black Card? What's the philosophy on that? Do you think is that if we're gonna get to a 65% or 67% penetration rate, is tiered perks gonna be the primary way we get there as opposed to reciprocity?

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

No, I think reciprocity will probably always be the primary driver from what we've seen.

John Heinbockel (Senior Managing Director, and Senior Research Analyst)

Okay

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

... you know, historically. You know, and every, you know, couple of years, we open up, you know, the 400 stores or so. When you're in a market with three stores, now you're in a market and there's 15 stores. I mean, that value is intense, you know? That definitely has been the driver over the years. That doesn't mean as we continue to capture data, you know, what perks drive, you know, what generation, interests. You know, like Crocs as I mentioned, Crocs was a great one. The Shell Gas was a great one. The free phone from Verizon has been a great one.

you know, as we continue to find out what is the really the hot buttons that get people to that attracts the discounts and attracts their attention is the ones we'll constantly refine and get better at it, you know? It'll be interesting as we grow and as we capture data and as we have perks competitors, I guess, if you will. You know, does T-Mobile come in and want a piece and outdo a better discount than Verizon? In time will tell, I think that's what we'll continually to give more value to the member. I believe strongly that if we can get people to start getting discounts in other products that they're. Particularly everyday items, right?

That they are feeling, especially in today's world, where inflationary issues are out there and people's wealth don't go as far and where their partner, you know, in the club and out of the club for many reasons, I think it can only help it. It's just providing more value to the member and help drive the business. The other side of it, I think in time, as time goes and as we're actually starting to get more in the pay-to-play world here. We have some data to prove that we're driving. More to come on that, but I think that'll be another endeavor here we're going down as larger these member base grows and the data we capture to help sell the opportunity.

John Heinbockel (Senior Managing Director, and Senior Research Analyst)

Maybe for Tom, right? If you think about sort of corporate profitability, I think you touched on it a little bit. There is a seasonal aspect to that because of promotional spend. You know, it sounds like it's pretty meaningful. Is that correct? When you think about, you know, on a go-forward basis, right? Because there's labor cost is higher, although it's not labor intense, but cost to operate probably is a little higher than inflating than it used to be. Is there still an idea of profitability in that, profit margins in that segment can improve over time and legacy can get to Sunshine levels? Is that still fair, right? On a go-forward basis.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

John, that's a, that's a yes and a no. So I think the yes part of that is they will continue to improve over time. You know, I think, and certainly across this year, you know, I think we are often benchmarking back to 2019, and I think we'll feel good about the progress we make in our corporate store margins, and our overall margins, you know, back to those levels. While it's very different, you know, to your point, with wages have gone up and so on and so forth. I don't we don't, and have never said that we see that the, the gap between Sunshine stores that we've acquired, their margin and the margin of our legacy stores would close.

We thought there's, there's a way to bring some of those better best practices, we're clearly seeing from the Sunshine team that is now part of our team, particularly in marketing and operations, and some of those practices that led Sunshine to be among the top three same-store sales drivers in our system, you know, prior to COVID. Those have definitely helped in why you see some of the outsized performance in corporate store same-store sales versus the system where historically that was the opposite. I think, John, the structural differences between the markets, where the legacy markets are mostly in the Northeast and the Sunshine markets are mostly in the Southeast, wages per hour are structurally different.

Rents per foot generally are structurally different, like-for-like centers, you know, in terms of traffic and quality. You know, improvement for sure, accelerated improvement versus had we not made the acquisition, but closing the gap, we've never thought that that would be the case.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Okay, thank you very much.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

You bet.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We have our next question comes from Warren Chan from Evercore ISI. Warren, your line is now open.

Warren Chan (Associate Analyst)

Hey, good morning. I just have a follow-up to the last couple questions on perks. You've given some numbers in the last year around both your Shell gasoline and your Crocs partnerships. And if I'm doing the math right, it implies the engagement level is still sort of in that very low single-digit range. First, can you give us some benchmarking or range of what % of your member base knows about and is taking advantage of perks today? Second, has that changed in the last year? Have things like the new app or some of these new partnerships you've engaged in the last couple of years, have those moved the needle?

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah. We haven't disclosed the percentage of members that are using it, but it definitely has gone up, as well as the people who have the app in general. Today we're up 80% of our members have the app, and the new member app adoption is about almost 90% at this point. What it comes down to is the more members that have it in their hands and they're checking into the club, the more times they see the perks. I think it really comes down to the engagement with thing is education, that they know what's there, why it's there, and how it works, as well as app adoption, so they get their eyeballs on it.

It's more of an education process, I think, than anything. We figure the, you know, the perks really just started ramping up probably a year ago, maybe a year and a half ago. If we came out of COVID with 13.5 million members at the end of 2020, you know, most of them. If you think of that 13.5, we didn't even really have it, so it's re-education of the, of the opportunity that's there. The new members are easy 'cause we can tell 'em point of sale that we have this opportunity for them to save money. It's really just the learnings, I think, is what's gonna drive more adoption of using it and engagement. That's what we continue to focus on.

Warren Chan (Associate Analyst)

Great. Thanks. Can you remind us the sort of the financial mechanics of some of these partnerships? You know, are there different models? What's the flow through view? Is this more of a, you know, are some of these more focused on the marketing side?

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah, they're all a little different, but generally they're a discount off their everyday price for the most part. There are some to the, to John Heinbockel's earlier question, there are some that are strictly Black Card, some are Black Cards get a bigger discount than Classic Card memberships, and some are just the same regardless of both. I think you'll see more of that differentiation in the, in the months and years ahead.

Warren Chan (Associate Analyst)

Great. Thank you. Good luck.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

All right. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We have our next question comes from Joseph Altobello from Raymond James. Joe, your line is now open.

Joseph Altobello (Managing Director, and Senior Equity Research Analys)

Thanks. Hey, guys. Good morning.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Morning, Joe.

Joseph Altobello (Managing Director, and Senior Equity Research Analys)

want to quickly go back to the placement number. You know, there's obviously a seasonal sequential step down in placements from Q4 to Q1. Why was it so pronounced this year? I guess what's drove that pull forward and that shift in timing this time around?

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah. Hey, Joe, it's Tom. I'll start that. I think, you know, we historically have a number of stores that, just due to timing or permitting or what have you, that the franchisee and us thought would open at the end of December, but spill over into January. They generally get the equipment placed. There may just be some hangup to why they can't open. You know, the placement is recognized in the fourth quarter in that case, but the store opens in Q1. We typically have, you know, a certain number of those stores every year. It's plus or minus a little bit.

This past year was just a much bigger number. I think part of that was some of the supply chain delays that pushed openings further and further, whether that was, you know, the Shanghai shutdowns and what have you. You know, that's why it was such a sort of an outsized number this year in terms of that carryover between placements or gap really between placements and openings that spill into this year. We're predicting that would be more normalized, you know, back to historical levels here this year, at the end of the year. It was just. You know, that number definitely creates that gap that you're sort of seeing in Q1.

Not so much a factor for the subsequent quarters until we get to the big Q4 again and, you know, hopefully, there are no more supply chain disruptions or anything that causes that to be different than what we've seen historically.

Joseph Altobello (Managing Director, and Senior Equity Research Analys)

Okay. Just to follow up on that, I'm trying to put the $1.1 million net new members into context. I'm curious how it compares to your expectations, given that you were adding a similar number and sometimes even a larger number pre-COVID on a smaller base. Were you guys hoping for something better, I guess, is what I'm asking in the quarter?

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah. I think, Joe, maybe I'll start that one. I think, you know, we don't really get into the quarterly view of our business. I think what I would say is the same-store sales growth continues to be 75% member growth. We affirmed our same-store sales outlook of high single digits. You know, that may tell you that we're tracking to where we thought, but we don't really get into what our quarterly expectation was on actual member growth. It's sort of reflected in our same-store sales number that we talk about for the full year.

Joseph Altobello (Managing Director, and Senior Equity Research Analys)

Okay.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Hope that helps.

Joseph Altobello (Managing Director, and Senior Equity Research Analys)

All right. Thank you. Yeah, it does. Thank you.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Well, our next question comes from Sharon Zackfia from William Blair. Sharon, your line is now open.

Sharon Zackfia (Partner, Group Head of the Consumer Sector, and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Hi. Good morning. You know, we on the outside have a really hard time kind of projecting equipment revenue. In the second quarter specifically, are you expecting that to grow year-over-year? I think some color there would be helpful. Secondarily, as the membership skews younger, can you talk about any changes you're doing within the clubs, whether it's the kind of equipment, you know, the clubs are gonna have or change to or anything else that needs to happen in the clubs to appeal to that kind of younger demographic?

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Sure, Sharon. This is Chris. I'll start with the equipment side of things. I would say a trend we've seen and I think it is driving, not wholly, but partially 'cause of the younger generation, is, more focused on functional training and weight training, circuit training as well, as opposed to the cardiovascular component of the clubs. We've actually just started in the last, probably 4 or 5 months, retooling new builds and remodels to slim down the cardio slightly. If a club had 120 pieces, it probably has 100 now, and designated more of that square footage to weights and functional training areas. We did a study, beginning of last year, I think it was, that we looked at, club member visits compared to minutes on cardio.

The minutes on cardio were down about 17%-20%. Although treadmills remained pretty similar, but it was all the other cardio came down. The store visits were the same, so they were on the, on the floor themselves working out with weights and functional training. We've seen areas grow in our stores, which is good. It's a little less expensive than cardio and power and everything else that runs them. That's the only thing we've seen really in the club that has changed. Frequency-wise is up over all generations, so it's not that it's, the younger generation that's working out more than the boomers, for example. It's actually, I think the boomers work out slightly more, believe it or not. Nothing else there.

It's more the equipment change, I think, in the clubs is what has changed.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Yeah. Sharon, back to your question on timing, I think a little bit of what I was saying to Joe's question there, you know, the Q4 to Q1 piece is a little trickier and was more outsized or exacerbated this year for the supply chain reasons. I think for Q2 of this year, you know, we normally don't provide this kind of view, but I get the difficulty. I think if folks thought about our placements for Q2 to be roughly flat to up very slightly, you wouldn't be too far off.

Sharon Zackfia (Partner, Group Head of the Consumer Sector, and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you.

Thomas Fitzgerald (CFO)

Okay.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Well, our next question comes from Alex Perry from Bank of America. Alex, your line is now open.

Alexander Perry (Director, and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to ask about any change to the international strategy, especially now that you're investing in a dedicated team. Does that mean, you know, you're planning on sort of accelerating international growth? What would be the timing of, you know, opening of new markets? Thanks.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Yeah. Thanks, thanks for the question. This is Edward. You know, actually, we're really just getting started on the international growth plans. I mean, obviously, we have a presence in several countries in Canada, Australia, Mexico, Panama. In 2022, we also announced that we signed an agreement to expand into New Zealand as well. You know, with regards to strategy, you know, in the past, it was more of a reactive approach. You know, meaning if someone, you know, contacted us, said they wanted to open up in a certain market, you know, we would consider it. I think today we're more in the process of actually building out a designated team to really focus on accelerating our growth outside of the U.S.

Once that team is built out, we expect international growth to really gradually make up a bigger portion of our annual new store expansion. you know, we've said this before, but you know, the U.S. has the highest level of gym membership penetration in the world, and

Edward Hymes (President and COO)

There hasn't really been an international market that we've entered in that we haven't actually been successful in. It's we've been really pleased with how our judgment-free environment and, you know, our affordable membership model really has been resonating in our global markets. Actually, in terms of access, you know, in Mexico, for example, you know, membership penetration rate's really, really low, you know, maybe around 33%. People wanna work out, they just might not have the access to the gym that's affordable. We provide that, and we're going after that market. You know, we'll continue to grow outside of our existing markets as well.

I think when we're looking at forecasting, we don't really forecast, or we're not gonna provide, you know, the details to where we're moving to. You know, Europe is interesting. You know, there's already incumbents in that space, in the HVLP space. Really, I think we have a differentiator and just like we do here in the U.S., in terms of having that judgment-free environment. And I think our low price definition is a good one when comparing it to those competitors there. Asia also doesn't have actually a significant incumbent competitor. It's a near opportunity that we're also looking at.

Alexander Perry (Director, and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Perfect. That's incredibly helpful. Then I just wanted to ask, is there anything you're doing different this year with High School Summer Pass that you think could lead to better membership conversion post the program? The 10%, you know, I thought was pretty impressive that you've, you know, you've done from last year, but anything you're planning on doing different this year to maybe even improve that conversion rate? Thanks.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Yeah, I think one thing I'd say first would be the data we've captured this past year on when they're, you know, the, I guess, the peaks and valleys of when they're tending to join as paying members. That's when we'll be focusing on targeting the most with the offers and incentives to hop on board. I think the other one there is the fact that when they do join, that the parent doesn't have to come in with them again to sign them up for their paying membership. That should be a good plus for us this year, which we didn't have till end of last year.

Actually, you know, as the program winds down is when we begin to see the ramp come up of paying members, actually, as you expect, Jeff, September is a good month for us.

Alexander Perry (Director, and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Perfect. That's helpful. Best of luck going forward.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Great. Thank you.

Edward Hymes (President and COO)

Thanks, Alex.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, Alex. We have no further questions on the line.

Christopher Rondeau (CEO and Director)

Thank you, operator. Once again, thank you for dialing in. Appreciate you getting on the phone today and listen to the Q1 earnings call. Although you've heard some headwinds from the increased cost of construction and interest rates, I think the most important thing to me and focus I have is that the fact that the member growth is where it's at. The continued to join, the resiliency of the brand and the model going through this economic climate, and with an increased annual fee Black Card pricing, you know, the better performance on cancellations and the rejoins are higher than the past. I think it's all good trends, and that's the most important trend, right? Is that the members are loving us and continue to work out and work out more. That's all great news.

As that sustains, that should overcome any kind of inflation and interest that we have to deal with over time. Thanks, everyone. Have a good day.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.