Want more from Front Office Sports
in your search results?
Amid uncertainty for the gym industry, Planet Fitness is doubling down.
The affordable gym chain is acquiring 114 locations from Sunshine Fitness, its first franchisee, for $800 million in cash and stock. Sunshine Fitness operates in the Southeastern U.S.
Planet Fitness will use a mix of cash on hand and new securitized notes issued from an existing financing facility to pay $425 million of the total bill.
- Planet Fitness said it ended 2021 with 15.2 million members, marking a 12-month increase of 1.7 million people. It had 2,254 gyms in its system.
- Despite this hefty transaction, Planet Fitness said it was “retaining its asset-light business model,” and will own around 10% of its system-wide store base once the deal closes.
State of the Gym
The gym industry has faced the twin challenges of the global pandemic and the rise of at-home fitness, but recent data suggests a recovery.
ClassPass showed a 329% increase in in-person fitness reservations from January to November 2021. Live-stream workouts had a corresponding fall of 58% over the same period, bottoming out at just 2% of ClassPass reservations, compared to 89% in April 2020.
Hybrid work models may be benefiting the gym industry: 70% of respondents in a ClassPass survey said they have gone to a gym or fitness studio on days they’re working from home.
Placer.ai found that weekly gym visits recovered to 2019 levels by the end of 2021, despite being around 30% below the 2019 benchmark in February 2021.
