Sometimes we miss a story. It‘s a bit embarrassing, especially when it‘s a big story. I received an e-mail on Sunday about a big story that we missed: Manny Butera‘s Total Fitness Systems filed for bankruptcy in December. The company is a management company and World Gym's largest club ownership group. The company was on our Top 100 list last July, moving up to 48th place from 70th place on our list based on their self-reported 2005 revenue (which increased 100 percent from their 2004 revenue). Last June I even conducted a short interview with Butera for the story. One would think that the possibility of bankruptcy might have been on his mind at that time. Of course, I can‘t blame him for not saying anything to me at the time. It might explain, though, why he didn‘t return my calls when I called him about the Planet Fitness purchase of World Gym in October.
So, mea culpa. We missed this one. But we are putting calls into Butera and others for a news item we hope to run about this in our March issue if we can get it completed before we go to press in a few days. If not, look for the story in our April issue.
If you know of some big news that we‘ve overlooked, please let us know about it. We‘re not here to just show the glossy side of the business (or just to point out where the worms are either). We want to present the full picture of the industry. To do that, we need your eyes and ears. E-mail me at [email protected] with any news you‘ve heard that we should cover in the magazine. -Pam