This is what Rene Moss and his partner certainly not expected after starting their tennis company: to buy back the intermediate share of an investment company (Waterland PE) thirty years later and being now together with the European Leisure Group, of which the trademarks Health City and Basic Fit belong, the second-largest health provider in the European market.
With their growth in the current year up to 680,000 members they could displace Virgin Active, the fitness company of Richard Branson, up to third place.

The German discounter McFit remains with around 1.2 million members still in first position. McFit is currently managing the internal organization for further expansion into new markets such as Poland or Italy. But movement also prevails in the fourth-placed Health & Fitness Nordic (HFN) and the fifth-placed David Lloyd Leisure (DLL) who displaced the former European leader Fitness First from the Top-5 for the first time. In June 2013 the HFN Group has announced a merger of the brands SATS and Fresh Fitness with ELIXIA Nordic and created a Scandinavian empire on the fitness market. British provider DLL was acquired by the private equity company TDR Capital for about 800 million euros at the beginning of September 2013. Their aim is to promote growth in the UK and Europe. In the Top-5 of the operators currently approximately 5.2 million people exercise.

Herman Rutgers, Executive Board Member of the European Health and Fitness Association (EHFA), commenting on the latest developments: "Four of the five largest international fitness providers have placed with new partners in recent years in order to remain competitive and to exploit the opportunities of the market." The EHFA outlined in its current report, in cooperation with Deloitte, the situation of the great European health and fitness providers and with particular emphasis on the merger and acquisition activities. These changes in the social structure are a testament to the obvious interest of externals in the fitness industry.

This impression is reinforced by further transactions in the market. In the current year several investors got involved in the discount segment. In Germany the North Holding is the majority shareholder of the southern low-cost provider Jumper Fitness. In the UK Pure Gym and The Gym Group have found new financial partners as well. In 2013, fitness companies received a cash injection of more than 1.5 billion euros for their further growth from their investors.

"The fitness industry is looking for investors because of the positive market outlook and the new promising business concepts in the context of the increasing diversification of the supply structure and is more attractive than ever," said Niels Gronau, Market Analyst at Deloitte.

Source: European Health and Fitness Association (EHFA)
Pictures: David Lloyd Leisure Ltd.