ABC Financial's headquarters in Sherwood.
(Corrections have been made to this article. See end for details.)
The mandated closing of fitness centers all over America due to the coronavirus pandemic has had a ripple effect on ABC Financial of Sherwood, which confirmed Friday that it had furloughed 30% of its employees.
The provider of gym management software and membership services declined to say exactly how many employees were furloughed. Before it was sold in late 2017 to Thoma Bravo of Chicago, ABC Financial was the largest subsidiary of JBE Inc., Jim Bottin’s holding company that claimed almost 900 employees, more than 500 in Arkansas.
“As of today,” Chief Marketing Officer Cristine Kao said in a statement issued Friday, “49 states have mandated temporary closure of fitness facilities. This means about 90% of our client base has closed. We’ve had to make some extremely difficult decisions to manage these unpredictable realities.”
The furloughs were announced to staff members earlier this week, and they were made “in all functions of the business, across all campuses,” Kao said. But the company remains “appropriately staffed to respond to both technical support and member services, provide training, as well as continue with our product and technology innovation so that we are ready when the clubs open their doors again and consumers looking to regain control of their health.”
(Correction, April 11, 2020: This article originally referred to layoffs, but ABC said they were furloughs.)
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