Planet Fitness, Hampton, New Hampshire, reported $111.88 million in first-quarter 2021 revenue, a 12.1 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2020 when revenue was $127.2 million, the company announced on May 6. It did, however, report adding 600,000 net new members in the quarter, ending with 14.1 million memberships.

It also reported that almost 100 percent of its clubs are now reopened and that it opened 22 new locations in the quarter, bringing system-wide total stores to 2,146 as of March 31, 2021.

Planet Fitness CEO Chris Rondeau said: “We are very encouraged by the clear and steady improvement in overall sentiment we witnessed in America during the first quarter and the corresponding impact it had on our business. We’re pleased to announce that we experienced sequential net member growth in each month of the quarter, ending March with 14.1 million members. We believe that the positive headline news on COVID-19 vaccine availability drove a seasonality shift in our membership trends as March membership growth exceeded March 2019, reinforcing our belief that people are eager to get back into our gyms.”

He anticipates the operating environment will remain volatile in the near term. However, he expressed optimism due to the company’s membership and usage trends as well as its recent partnership with technology company iFIT Health & Fitness Inc.
“As we look to the future, we believe our purpose of enhancing people’s lives and creating a healthier world sets us, and our franchisees, up for long-term success,” he said.

Planet Fitness’ revenue comes from three segments: its franchisees, its corporate-owned clubs and its equipment sales to franchisees. The franchisee revenue increased $5.5 million or 9.5 percent to $64.1 million compared to $58.5 million in first quarter of 2020. Part of this segment revenue includes lower royalty and national advertising fund collections in the three months ended March 31, 2021, as well as lower membership levels as a result of COVID-19, but those decreases were offset by a deferral of $14.1 million of royalty revenue and $4.6 million of national advertising fund revenue in the three months ended March 31, 2020, that was collected but not recognized because of temporary store closures as a result of COVID-19.

The other two segments experienced revenue decreases. Corporate-owned stores segment revenue decreased $2.6 million or 6.5 percent to $37.9 million from $40.5 million in the prior-year period. The decrease was primarily due to reduced membership levels and temporary store closures related to COVID-19, partially offset by the opening of five new corporate-owned stores since Jan. 1, 2020, and $5.9 million of deferred revenue that was collected but not recognized in the three months ended March 31, 2020, as a result of COVID-19 store closures, according to the company.

Equipment segment revenue decreased $18.2 million or 64.7 percent to $9.9 million from $28.2 million in the prior-year period, due to lower equipment sales to new and existing franchisee-owned stores in the three months ended March 31, 2021, compared to the three months ended March 31, 2020. This was primarily as a result of providing all franchisees with a 12-month extension for all new store development obligations and an 18-month extension on re-equipment obligations, both as a result of COVID-19.

originally written by: Club Industry

Loblaw announced that all of the nominee directors listed in the management proxy circular dated March 26, 2021, were elected as directors of Loblaw. The vote was conducted at the Company’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders, held in a virtual meeting format, on May 6, 2021. The results of the vote are set out below:

Health Canada has issued a number of recalls for items found to be hazardous and sold at Mississauga and Brampton Walmart stores, among other local retail locations.
CanPrev Natural Health Products Ltd is recalling certain lots of Magnesium Bis-Glycinate Powder 250 (Berry Hibiscus and Rose Hip Dragonfruit) sold up to May 8 because of a packing error.

Affected lots were packaged with a scoop that is near twice the size (20cc) it should be (11cc), leading to users taking more than double the recommended dose of magnesium.
Users should discard the scoop and obtain the recommended dose, take two teaspoons of the product instead, using a measuring spoon and not a kitchen spoon.
You should stop taking the product if you experience diarrhea or abdominal cramps. There is no need to return the product.

Health Canada warned not to consume Golden Mushroom brand Enoki Mushroom, which is being recalled due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination.

All units of the Golden Mushroom, size 200g sold up to May 7 are being recalled. The recalled product should be thrown or returned to the store where it was purchased.
Anyone who becomes sick is asked to call your doctor. Symptoms can include vomiting, nausea, persistent fever, muscle aches, severe headache, and neck stiffness.

Pregnant women, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems are, particularly at risk.

There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of the product.

Organic Garage announced that its 100%-owned subsidiary “Future of Cheese” has signed a manufacturing agreement with Ontario-based Flamaglo Foods.

Organic Garage is an Ontario-based independent organic grocer with a growing footprint, increasing revenue and new business verticals.

Founded in 2005 by a fourth-generation grocer, Matt Lurie, Organic Garage‘s 4-outlet Toronto area chain did $24 million in sales last year.

Like Whole Foods (purchased by Amazon for $13.7 billion), OG targets health-conscious consumers.

Many urban millennials (25 to 40-year-olds) are seeking alternatives to big chain-stores.

“A growing number of the millennial generation express dim views of corporations and their leaders,” reports Forbes Magazine.

Organic Garage is neighbourhood focused – with “a wide selection of healthy and natural products at everyday affordable prices.”

“The North American organic sector posted a banner year in 2019, with organic sales in the food and non-food markets totaling a record $55.1 billion, up a solid 5% from the previous year“.

Within this macro-trend, the market for non-dairy butter and cheese has multiple demand drivers.

“Primary lactose intolerance is caused by a decrease in lactase production with age, so that lactose becomes poorly absorbed,” states Healthline.

“Lactose intolerance affects 5–17% of Europeans, 60–80% of Africans and Asians and around 44% of North Americans” added Healthline.

According to Manufacturing.Net, “96% percent of North Americans love cheese” to the point that 39% would give up coffee for a year to avoid quitting cheese.

Future of Cheese products include cultured butter and cream cheeses made from sustainably and ethically sourced plant-based ingredients.

Organic Garage has been working with Flamaglo Foods at their HACCP certified facility.

HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) is a systematic and preventative system developed in the 1960s by NASA,” states the Canadian Institute of Food Safety, “Today, HACCP principles form the basis of Food Safety Plans worldwide”.

“This includes ingredient sourcing, batch testing, product manufacturing, packaging, storage and fulfillment,” states OG, “All recipes and formulations will remain proprietary to the Company, and Flamaglo Foods has executed a strict confidentiality agreement related to the production and manufacturing of Future of Cheese products”.

“Selecting a domestic manufacturing partner with the highest level of proven experience, knowledge and success in the plant-based food sector is a significant milestone for the company, and allows us to commence production of our initial line of products with confidence,” stated Jen Wojtaszek, President of Future of Cheese.

Flamaglo Foods products are sold in more than 2,000 retail locations across Canada.

“My team and I are excited about the collaboration with Future of Cheese,” stated Francis Lo, Co-Founder of Flamaglo Foods, “we look forward to working together to help transform their well-developed vision and recipes into exceptional products ready for the rapidly growing plant-based consumer market.”

“When we acquired Future of Cheese, we want to build a sound foundation on the production side,” Matt Lurie, President and CEO of Organic Garage told Proactive Investors, “Finding a partner like we have now allows us to do that, as we continue to look at other markets, whether it be US or Europe, this gives us a lot of flexibility”.

“Flamaglo foods are pioneers in the space of plant-based products,” confirmed Craig Harding, Co-Founder of Future of Cheese, “We just happened to catch them as they launched a state-of-the art brand new facility in late 2020′.

On March 17, OG announced the expansion of its Hand-Picked Partner program.

The expansion will initially consist of the placement of the Cali-Rolls sustainable sushi brand at the Organic Garage Junction location and the roll-out of the Tori’s Bakeshop program across all four Company stores.

Tori’s Bakeshop is the latest partner in a curated food concept that allows select vendors to sell unique, ready-made and specialized foods to Organic Garage customers through small-footprint, on site kiosks.

OG’s geographic footprint is expanding.

On November 28, 2019, OG announced that it had begun construction of the Leaside location – which follows a formula of expanding its store footprint into high population density locations.

Leaside is located northeast of Toronto’s downtown core and consists of over 229,000 households with an average household income of over $139,000 per year within a 5km radius.

The Global Plant-based Cheese Market is valued approximately USD $1.01 billion in 2019 and is anticipated to grow at a rate of more than 12.8 % over the forecast period 2020-2027,” states Wise Guy Reports.

Meet Brynn Putnam. The CEO and founder secured $3 million in venture capital to fund her tech-based fitness company MIRROR on the same day that she gave birth to her son. In the summer of 2020, Putnam sold MIRROR for $500 million to Lululemon. The pandemic has been good for business. MIRROR ads are plastered across New York’s subway, airing on TV and clogging up social media channels. But selling a company for half a billion dollars is just a small part of her story and frankly, not even the most interesting. There are three numbers to watch out for in this story. $15,000: The amount Brynn had in her savings when she quit ballet. $3 million: Her first outside investment. $500 million: The amount she sold MIRROR for in 2020. Here’s how Brynn Putnam built a company worth half a billion dollars in just two years.

“I always felt like working out at home and you were sacrificing quality for convenience,” Putnam tells CNBC Make It. “You were putting a big bike or a treadmill into your small in your apartment, or you were searching for content on YouTube and watching it on a tiny phone while you tried to awkwardly workout.”

So Putnam did something about it. She created the Mirror, a “nearly invisible” smart, tech-connected mirror that allows users to stream workouts and fitness classes from home while watching themselves work out. All for $1,495 for the equipment and $39 a month to access the content.

Pitching to investors while 9 months pregnant

By the time Putnam was pitching investors on Mirror, she was nine months pregnant.

“It was very nerve-wracking to be a single female founder with no technical skills, presenting a prototype that looks beautiful but was really not functional while very pregnant,” she says. (Putnam’s husband, an engineer, made the prototype.)

Some investors and entrepreneurs suggested that Putnam find a co-founder, one who was male and had technical experience, and recommended that she wait until after her pregnancy to fundraise.

“You sort of learn very quickly who are the investors who understood the vision and those who definitely do not,” she says.

Putnam didn’t budge: “I felt really strongly that we had a really great product and that the market was ripe for the opportunity,” she says. “I didn’t want to miss my chance with my first business.”

Looking back, she says that she “dodged bullets” by losing some of those investors. “If we had brought those partners around the table, we would never have had the freedom to build the company that we built today,” she says.

Pumping and scaling

On the day Putnam’s son George was born, she signed her first round of seed funding, which was $3 million from First Round Capital, right from the hospital. Within two weeks, she returned to work, breast pump in hand.

Mirror’s first round of funding went toward designing and developing a functioning prototype (with hardware, software and content) that could then move into mass production and launch, Putnam says.

Two years after closing the first fundraising round, Mirror launched in 2018. In Mirror’s second year of business, it did $150 million in revenue with a team of 125 people. By 2019, Mirror raised a total of $72 million in outside investment.

In September. Lululemon bought the company for half a billion dollars in cash, which has allowed Mirror to scale “much faster with much greater certainty,” Putnam says. “I think Lululemon and Mirror together is a case where one plus one equals five. So the the upside potential for both companies is really limitless.”

Both her babies are growing up.

“There are so many times when you’re making choices between your baby and your business as a mom and a founder that are heart-wrenching,” Putnam says. “It’s been important for me to remind myself that my son will hopefully one day wake up and look at me and be proud of what I built, and feel inspired that he can build anything that he wants to build too.”

Originally written: CNBC

Plant-Based Foods of Canada (PBFC) announced it is now easier than ever for Canadians to identify plant-based products on retail grocery shelves, as the first products carrying the ‘Certified Plant Based’ seal has hit stores.

Plant-Based Foods of Canada (PBFC) partnered with the US-based Plant-Based Foods Association (PBFA) to make the plant-based food certification program available in Canada. The protocol, owned by PBFA, focuses on plant-based alternatives to animal-based foods and specifies the criteria to use the Certified Plant Based seal.

Now, the first products carrying the Certified Plant Based seal can be found on Canadian grocery shelves. Plant-based foods that are eligible to receive the certification include meat, poultry, and seafood alternatives, egg substitutes, and dairy alternatives such as plant-based milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, and ice cream.

“We want to make it easy for Canadian consumers to confidently identify plant-based products as the plant-based food industry continues to grow and new products enter the market,” explains Leslie Ewing, PBFC Executive Director. “The Certified Plant Based seal provides assurance that products contain no animal-derived ingredients.”

Recent research from Nielsen shows that plant-based foods in Canada continue to post strong sales growth even throughout the pandemic, and are now valued at over $500 million dollars.

“With many plant-based foods for consumers to choose from, the Certified Plant Based seal on packages will help them sort through these plant-based choices with new certainty and clarity,” said Dan Bajor, President, Upfield Canada. “Upfield is pleased to partner with Plant-Based Foods of Canada to help consumers easily identify and choose foods made with the goodness of plants.”

“As a founding member of Plant-Based Foods Canada, Daiya is proud to further demonstrate our commitment and feature the Certified Plant-Based Foods Seal on all our products, as soon as possible,” declared Michael Watt, Chief Executive Officer for Daiya Foods. “We believe it is important to support programs that help ensure credibility in quality standards, especially as more consumers include plant-based options in their daily food choices.”

Research conducted by Nielsen for PBFC has shown that identifying products as “plant-based” is important to consumers as they are looking for assurance that products are not from animal-based sources. The Certified Plant Based seal will instill consumer confidence, build awareness of plant-based food options, and establish a consistent identifier for the plant-based foods industry. NSF International serves as the certifying agency supporting the program by providing independent verification before the seal can be used.