For Costa Mesa-based Perspire Sauna Studio, keeping up with the surging popularity of health and wellness services is no sweat.
Through an aggressive franchising push, the company—which utilizes infrared lighting systems to heat customers directly, rather than a traditional steam-based sauna that heats the air—aims to add 25 studio locations across the country by the end of this year. Spots in Irvine, San Clemente, and Laguna Beach are among the many local additions coming to its portfolio.
Its companywide location count, now at 22 studios after adding eight spots last year, expects to top 60 by the end of 2023.
The goal is to have 500 Perspire studios open in the next five years, CEO Lee Braun told the Business Journal.
The company said earlier this month that it has signed 28 franchise agreements since the beginning of year, representing its best-ever quarter. Perspire signed 60 franchise agreements in all of 2021, and bills itself as the country’s fastest-growing infrared sauna studio franchise.
Competitors include Austin, Texas-based Restore Hyper Wellness and Marrero, LA-based Hotworx.
Perspire’s rapid expansion plans come not only as more consumers take interest in new ways to preserve their health and wellness, but also as more potential franchise owners “leave their careers to do something more entrepreneurial,” Braun said.
Local, US Expansion
Orange County is expected to be a key hub of the company’s expansion; Perspire aims to add locations in Tustin and Aliso Viejo in the next couple years, along with the soon-to-open spots in Irvine, San Clemente and Laguna Beach. It already has locations in Costa Mesa, Dana Point, Huntington Beach, Laguna Niguel, Newport Beach and Mission Viejo.
Outside the state, studios—which average around 1,800 square feet—are located Arizona, Georgia, Texas, Idaho, Florida, Iowa and Nebraska. It recently signed agreements for locations in Illinois, Missouri, Utah and Montana.
Franchisees typically invest between $371,000 and $562,000 to open a location, with a franchise fee of $45,000, according to state franchising documents.
Perspire, founded in 2010, surpassed 1 million total sauna sessions last October and is already on track hit 2 million sessions by the end of the year, officials said.
Currently, the company holds 40,000 to 50,000 sessions a month, officials say. Sessions start around $20 each, and are typically sold in multi-session packs. The private rooms at the studio are designed to hold only a couple people at a time, and are reserved in advance.
Studios that were open all of 2021 saw average revenue of around $550,000, officials said.
Same-studio membership is up about 25% from pre-pandemic levels, the company said last October.
‘Ahead of its Time’
In Perspire’s early days, concern for health and wellness were not as popular as it is now, Braun said.
“Over the first few years, it was a little bit of a struggle getting started,” he said. “In 2010, wellness was not really at the forefront of people’s minds.
“Back then [Perspire] was kind of out there—kind of ahead of its time.”
But despite being a wellness underdog, positive feedback from customers kept Braun and his team motivated.
Eventually, the business picked up in 2014, when the company added studios in LA Fitness gyms in Huntington Beach and Laguna Niguel.
Four years later, the company opened its first franchise location at Irvine Co.’s Newport Bluffs apartment complex in Newport Beach.
While Perspire studios are now only in the U.S., Braun says the company is looking to eventually open studios overseas, though a timeline hasn’t been disclosed.
The global sauna and spa market is expected to reach $4.65 billion in 2025, with an annual growth rate of about 5.4%, according to research and consulting firm Koncept Analytics Pvt. Ltd.
Growth-Driving Hires
To support and drive Perspire’s growth, Braun said the company has been “hiring ahead of needs.”
The team’s corporate operations recently grew from five to 15 employees, and it is still hiring for a variety of operational positions, it said.
In January, the company brought on Larry Layton as vice president of operations, who joins the team after years of working with Fortune 500 companies, including Irvine-based Taco Bell Corp., Atlanta-based Buffalo Wild Wings and Miami-based Burger King. Layton also taught business management at Mission Viejo’s Saddleback College.
Heat Therapy
Infrared saunas are a new twist on an old pastime. Heat therapy, such as Turkish-style baths, or hammams, Finnish-style saunas and Russian steam saunas, or banyas, are thousands of years old.
“It’s an ancient desire to use heat therapy,” Braun said. “Our bodies crave it to build immunity, fight disease and overcome sickness.”
Benefits of saunas include improved ability to sleep, boosted immunity, reduced inflammation and stress, enhanced weight loss and clearer skin, according to Perspire’s website.
Compared to traditional saunas, infrared saunas use infrared wavelengths to raise the body’s core temperature two to three degrees rather than heating the surrounding air. Because they aren’t as hot, infrared users can take 40 minute-sessions versus only 20 minute-sessions in traditional saunas.
Berkeley-based Clearlight Wellness, Perspire’s manufacturer, also produces infrared saunas for Jacuzzi Group, the hot tub and spa firm which moved its headquarters from Chino Hills to Irvine last month and was profiled in the April 11 print edition of the Business Journal.
‘Gut-Check Moment’
Braun owns a majority stake in the company, which is self-financed and has no corporate backers.
Before he joined Perspire, he worked as a project manager in the construction industry, including at Sterling Heights-based development firm Conti Corp.
But the Michigan State University marketing major with a longtime passion for fitness and human physiology had different career aspirations. So, when a family friend came to him with the opportunity to work with saunas, he took it right away.
It was “one of those gut-check moments where you kind of risk everything move across the country, start a business and roll the dice,” Braun said.
Plus, “moving out to California and living a healthy lifestyle was a big dream of mine.”
He said he’s had a lot of fun since joining the wellness space because of how much positive feedback he gets from Perspire customers.
“There aren’t a lot of businesses where the customers come up to you and thank you for being in business,” he said.
Seeing his company not only “help franchisees create well and grow a business they can own and run … but also help customers with their mental, physical and emotional wellness” has been a rewarding experience, he said.
