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About Curves
Over 27 years ago, Curves founder Gary Heavin dropped out of a pre-med program that he could no longer afford. He took over a failing health club in Houston, Texas and began to provide fitness services that would prevent illness. By age 30, Gary had built a fitness center chain with 17 locations and then... he lost it all. He decided to rebuild his business applying the many lessons he had learned from both his successes and his failures.
He and his wife Diane opened their first Curves in Harlingen, Texas in 1992. This new concept of 30-minute fitness, strength training, weight-loss guidance, and a comfortable environment designed for women, was immediately successful. Diane had a passion for exercise and the perspective of an advertising executive. Together, Gary and Diane began to develop plans for franchising the concept, with the first opening in 1995.
Curves reached 1,000 locations within 36 months and 9,000 locations in just ten years. Curves has been consistently ranked in Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the best new franchises in their annual survey and has now entered Guinness World Records as "The world's largest fitness center franchise." The fact that this phenomenal growth has been realized almost entirely through the positive word-of-mouth from Curves members is a true tribute to the value the program provides.