3.5 million exercise at Top 10

Mannheim, January 08, 2018 – The demand for fitness offerings remains on a high level. This becomes evident in the latest edelhelfer analysis of leading club operators in Germany. The ten biggest fitness operators according to their membership base have been able to increase their total member number by almost 10% during the past year. Budget operators keep shaping the market. Six out of the ten biggest companies operate in the segment that focusses on the price. They all have been able to enlarge their market presence. Nevertheless, all other operators have been able to defend their top ten positions.

 

edelhelfer Top 10 fitness club operators

edelhelfer-Top 10 der Fitnessanbieter

 

By the end of 2017, the top ten club operators accumulate approximately 3.5 million members according to the sixth analysis of the leading fitness operators in Germany by the advisory company edelhelfer from Mannheim. Thus, the general total number of members in fitness clubs grew by 9.7%.

The budget operator McFIT with its 1.5 million members is by far the biggest market player. While expanding its core brand McFIT as well as the club formats John Reed and High5 in Germany and in different other European countries, the company emphasizes a growing diversification of its offerings.At the end of last year, the McFit Global Group introduced on-site "live courses" held by instructors and therewith ended its previous limitation to virtual offerings. This "cyber training" which is produced in-house is also marketed under the brand Cyberobics as purely virtual retail product and as business-to-business solution for other fitness clubs, companies, or hotels. Other branches of the fitness group are the sport foods provider Qi² Sports Nutrition, an agency for fitness models, or the planned 55,000m² club "The Mirai" located in Oberhausen.

Fitness market expert and edelhelfer's managing director Niels Gronau comments the market leader's strategy: "The started horizontal diversification is an effective means to defend and develop the market position. McFIT uses its established standing and its achieved reach to open up new customer groups in the fitness market with related products. An endeavour just like the agency McFIT models nicely fits the brand with the long-standing slogan "Simply good looking" and supports its appeal."

The total turnover of the McFIT group amounted to approximately EUR 242 million in the last published reporting year 2015. Thus, McFIT is also Germany's biggest operator in terms of revenues; once again followed by Fitness First (EUR 147 million in 2015). Under the new managing director Martin Seibold the company continued its repositioning during the past year and records 245,000 members at year end. In terms of members, however, the franchise brand clever fit ranks second with 650,000 customers in 321 clubs. McFITs strongest competitor among the owner-operated budget providers FitX has been able to raise the number of clubs by 12 to 61 and should have more than 200,000 members by now. The remaining budget chains in the top ten EASYFITNESS und FLEXX FITNESS have been able to further strengthen their market presence.

The number of members has limited explanatory power when it comes to measuring the "size" of a company. This becomes evident when comparing the different market segments: While budget operator clever fit on average makes EUR 23 per customer and month, premium clubs such as MeridianSpa get up to EUR 90 which equals a four times higher value per individual customer. A positioning in the higher priced market segment can be successful - as illustrated by the ongoing expansion of players such as body+soul, elementsHolmes Place, Puls, or the Pfitzenmeier group. The latter invested around EUR 30 million in a new club with 10,000 m2 usable space in Karlsruhe just this past fall. The group at the same time is the only purely regional player in the top ten.

 

 edelhelfer Top 10 fitness club operators 

  1. McFIT1) >1,500,000
  2. clever fit 650,000
  3. Fitness First 245,000
  4. Kieser Training 235,000
  5. FitX2) 230,000
  6. EASYFITNESS 220,000
  7. INJOY 185,000
  8. Pfitzenmeier 145,000
  9. Mrs.Sporty 131,000
  10. FLEXX FITNESS 70,000

Source: edelhelfer analysis, corporate statements as of December 31, 2017, 1) in Europe, 2) estimate

Another local operator, the Cologne based company JustFit, barely missed the top ten with its 60,000 members. Through its network for company fitness Interfit, however, another 25,000 members exercise in 1,520 clubs. With FitnessLoft, FitnessKing, Wellyou, or Jumpers Fitness the chasing pack, in turn, comprises more budget providers that have a strong member base. In sum, more than 50 providers position themselves in the German budget segment each with a minimum of three clubs at the moment.

Subscribe to our newsletter now

... and stay up to date





  I agree that the operator and publisher may inform me about selected topics. My data is used exclusively for this purpose. In particular, no disclosure to unauthorized third parties. I am aware that I can revoke my consent at any time with effect for the future. The Privacy Policy applies, which also includes other information about how to correct, delete and block my data.


*) required.