Richmond region’s Romp n’ Roll expands in China

November 11, 2011
By Louis Llovio / Richmond Times Dispatch

Romp n' Roll, a locally owned children's gym chain, is looking to hire 14 teachers for seven new locations opening early next year.

Perks include fully paid and furnished apartments and paid holidays. There's a catch, though. The jobs are in China. And they are only for one year.

"We're putting so much focus on growing that we go where" people want to open a franchise, said Michael Barnett, who owns the chain with his wife, Babz.

The company, which opened its first location in Henrico County in 2004, has nine U.S. locations in four states and Puerto Rico. The new gyms in China will bring the total number of Romp n' Roll locations there to 13.

The Barnetts met a Chinese couple, Luyin Zhao and Yingying Xu, who studied in the U.S. and wanted to open a children-related business when they returned home. The couple looked at several opportunities before buying franchise rights to Romp n' Roll.

The first China Romp n' Roll opened last year in Beijing and has grown to six. The seven new gyms are scheduled to open in February.

And, at least early on, the Chinese gyms are doing better than the U.S. ones, mostly because they sign up students on two-year contracts.

"Their numbers (of students) are less than here, but their revenue is higher," Barnett said.

The Romp n' Roll gyms combine gym, music and art classes for young children.

The Barnetts began franchising the concept in 2007 and started offering its services at area preschools and child-care facilities last year.

Barnett is as surprised as anyone about the rapid rise of the company in China. "I thought we would be in India first," he said.

The next stop is South Korea, where a deal is in place to open a gym.

Barnett is headed to China early next month for a week, and then he'll go to South Korea to finalize the deal there.

The focus now, however, is finding the U.S. teachers willing to head to China on a one-year contract.

Romp n' Roll is offering a benefit package that includes training, round-trip airfare and a salary. The chain prefers experienced teachers. For those concerned about the language barrier, Barnett said teachers will lead classes in English along with a translator.

"This is a rare opportunity," he said.

Anna Czaplicki, an art teacher at Franklin Military Academy who has worked at Romp n' Roll for five years, spent a year in China working for the chain. She returned to the U.S. in June.

The classes were the same as those here, but she had to adjust to working with a translator as well as being more expressive because of the language barrier. But it was the country itself that captivated Czaplicki.

"I loved it," she said. "I could have stayed."

Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by permission.

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