At the end of 2012 more than 7.9 million people in Germany were enrolled in a fitness studio. With that almost every tenth German worked out in one of 7.566 fitness clubs nationwide. This is 4 percent more than in the previous year.
The average membership number per facility with a total surface of more than 200 square-meters increased for 2.5 percent to 1.203. Basically the fitness market is differentiated in chain-, branches- and single companies. The single companies possess on average 802, the branch companies 1.314 and the chain businesses about 2.422 members per facility. Single facilities are able to record the most members in absolute numbers but chain companies catched up and increased their member number to 3.5 million. At the end of 2007 single operators had almost twice as much members as all other operators.  In contrast to that the number of members branch companies decreased in 2012 of about 233.000- a reason is that several branch companies opened further facilities and are now allocated to chain operators. In 2012 the chains had a market share of 47.2 percent. Although the fitness industry observed a dip in the average membership fees (gross monthly fee including VAT) of 46,20 in 2011 to 45.42 Euro in  2012,  the total turnover remained constant. The increased number of members compensates for the decreased membership fee that the total turnover of the fitness industry increased for 0.1 percent to 3.8 billion. The market will see a further differentiation and there will be single niches which could offer good potential.

 “The long-term growth trend in the fitness industry continued also in 2012. That it will continue in the next year according to the results from a survey of fitness operators about their expectation for the next twelve months.  Just 2 percent of the operators take a pessimistic view on the future while about 74 percent expect that the situation will improve in 2013” said Birgit Schwarze, president of the DSSV

Source: Deloitte, DSSV; DHfPG

Images: Deutsche Hochschule für Prävention und Gesundheitsmanagement (DHfPG)