Ronin finally has some good news

September 7, 2010 by Dave Haynes

Wireless Ronin Technologies gets endless scrutiny for its financial struggles – all laid bare every three months in SEC filing – so it is refreshing to see some good news from the company.

Its RoninCast software has been selected by Snap Fitness, a fast-growing franchisor of 24/7 fitness centers that says it will do 1,000 sites before the end of this year.

“We selected Wireless Ronin Technologies’ (WRT) RoninCast software after conducting an extensive search and due diligence to find the best solution for our franchisees,” explains Peter Taunton, CEO of Snap Fitness. “The ease of use of the online management system combined with their 24/7 network operations center (NOC) provided the best in class solution to best support our brand and the needs of our franchise owners.”

Wireless Ronin will provide software and hosting to all 2,000 plus franchisee locations across the United States. Snap Fitness and WRT plan to deploy RoninCast software to 1,000 locations by January 1, 2011 with another 500 locations anticipated by June 1, 2011.

The network that will be hosted and maintained by Wireless Ronin will be designed to meet the specific needs and demographic challenges of Snap Fitness. This includes satisfying the requirements of two different stakeholder groups, both franchisee and corporate, who will leverage the network for both internal and external advertisements. Corporate will manage and distribute external advertisements from key brands that appeal to Snap Fitness Customers’ demographics while franchisees will manage internal advertising that will include club promotions, amenities and announcements.

Scott Koller, president and chief operating officer of Wireless Ronin said, “We are excited to be working with Snap Fitness and are thrilled to support the digital signage needs of such a fast growing company. We look forward to providing Snap Fitness with world class support for its network.”

First, congratulations to the sales team that got Snap to show extraordinary faith. Snap, also based in the Twin Cities area, is signing up despite a lot of troubling financials that scream caution.

Second, 1,000 sites over the next 15-16 weeks? Good luck with that.

Third, that big round 1,000 number always gets experienced industry people skeptical. If this is like KFC, the franchisees have to be won over on this, one by one by one … tough slogging.

That stated, deals are good and rollouts better. So well done and I’m sure spirits are a little lifted around the offices in Minneapolis.

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