Planet Fitness to accelerate new club opening plans following strong financial performance

Having reported a 29.3% increase in revenue for the first half of 2019 - driven largely by new openings - USA-based Planet Fitness is planning further growth, with Australasian Leisure Management understanding it is in advanced stages of planning to begin operations in Australia.

The low-cost operator opened 53 new clubs during the six months to 30th June, which resulted in total revenues reaching US$181.7 million while sales increased by 8.8%.

Advising that the growth was a result of "favourable real estate trends", Planet Fitness Chief Executive Chris Rondeau advised that the company has increased its target for new openings during 2019.

Rondeau stated “we now expect to open between 250 and 260 new Planet Fitness locations system-wide in 2019, up from our prior outlook of approximately 225.

"With the strong returns generated by our welcoming, non-intimidating fitness concept, franchisees are increasingly eager to reinvest in both expanding their geographic footprint and broadening awareness of the Planet Fitness Brand among casual and first-time gym users, as well as re-investing in their existing store fleet by re-equipping their clubs with new equipment.

"I am very proud of all our recent accomplishments and I am confident that the work being done across our system by our franchisees, corporate staff and team members in our stores is setting the Company up for continued success."

Founded in 1992, Planet Fitness has become one of the largest and fastest-growing franchisors and operators of health clubs in the USA. It also operates in Canada, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Panama.

As of 30th June it had more than 14 million members across 1,859 clubs while earlier this month it was named to Fortune magazine’s 2019 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list, ranking 58 among the world's top three-year performers in revenues, profits, and stock returns.