News Photo by Crystal Nelson Thunder Bay Therapy and Sports Medicine owners Teresa and Bruce Duncan demonstrate their balancing equipment earlier this month at the location in Alpena.

ALPENA — Thunder Bay Therapy and Sports Medicine will be unveiling a new look this spring, after joining forces with a nationally renowned physical therapy franchise.

Owners Bruce and Teresa Duncan recently signed an agreement with Fyzical Therapy and Balance Centers. The company has more than 400 locations throughout the United States, Teresa Duncan said, with the closest franchises currently located in Petoskey and Traverse City.

The business will be changing its name to Thunder Bay Fyzical Therapy and Balance Centers as part of the agreement, but the Duncans will retain ownership, and all of their employees will continue to work there.

Bruce Duncan said Fyzical Therapy and Balance Centers will provide more supportive services, which will provide them with more advanced training in both the clinical and business side of operations.

“One of the issues we’ve run into for probably the last five years, it’s become increasingly complex of a landscape and we really needed a partner to help us through some of the regulatory issues that are part of health care,” he said.

He said Fyzical was really the only option that worked for them, because the group offered them help. Other franchises would have bought their business and taken it over, which is not what the Duncans wanted.

Additionally, he said they wanted to maintain their independence so they can treat people in the manner they find best.

“It was very important to us that we be able to retain ownership and all decision making and Fyzical met that need,” Teresa Duncan said. “It was also very important that we be able to grow this even more so it lasts a very time — both for our community and for our employees.”

Bruce Duncan said Thunder Bay Therapy already does some balance work, but they found Fyzical offered both training on the clinical end and on the business end to expand what they do for balance and distribution care.

The additional training for balance and distribution care is just one of the areas Fyzical will help the business expand into. Teresa Duncan said they want to become the place that people think of when they need specialized physical therapy or sports medicine.

The Duncans said they originally planned to go public with the change in the summer, but the coronavirus pandemic slowed their plans down terribly.

In the meantime, Teresa Duncan said the business changed its paint scheme to match the new branding. They’ve also received new equipment and staff have been attending clinical training. She said she expects the new signage to go up just after the first of the year.

Bruce Duncan said the agreement with Fyzical will allow the business to continue to move forward and meet the Duncans goals.

“As we’ve grown, we want to expand services into areas that people normally have to go downstate for, or across the state for,” he said. “We really want to become a center of excellence, where people say, ‘I’m going to Alpena because they have this clinic,’ as opposed to, ‘we’ll get the basics here and then go down to Ann Arbor.'”