Retail report shows ongoing growth in fitness club locations

Leading retail intelligence platform, GapMaps, has revealed that in 3,460 fitness club locations, 151 premises opened and 60 closed in 2022, representing a net change of 91 new centres compared to the previous year.

GapMaps’ latest survey charted the location openings and closures among 22 fitness brands in the 12 month period to 31st January 2023, with its retail report providing unique insights and trends across Australia in the Health and Fitness, Café and Beverages, Childcare and Auto Tyre and Servicing sectors.

Revealing key insights on the changing landscape in key retail sectors, GapMaps’ findings showed continued net growth in health and fitness.

Among the findings, Australia’s largest chain Anytime Fitness had 558 locations at the end of January, opening 26 new centres and closing five, representing a net change of 21 new gyms in 2022.

F45 and CrossFit, who each operate more than 500 locations, have centres in 60 of the 67 cities with populations of more than 20,000 residents. F45 added five new gyms and closed two, a net change of three, while CrossFit reported no openings and closures.

Snap Fitness and the Viva Leisure-owned Plus Fitness, which each operate sizeable gym networks with more than 200 locations respectively, reported growth in 2022, with Snap Fitness opening 15 new gyms and closing 10, a net change of five, while Plus Fitness opened five new gyms and closed two, a net change of three.

Emergent brands to report strong growth and no closures include Fitstop Australia opening 25 locations, Viva Leisure’s Club Lime chain opening 15, BFT (Body Fit Training) opening 14 locations and KX Pilates opening 12.

GapMaps also revealed that among Childcare Centres, Australia has 8,707 childcare facilities providing Long Day Care and offering 631,000 places. In the 12 month period to the end of January this year, an additional 26,000 places have been added across a net additional 258 facilities.

In the Auto Tyre and Servicing sector, GapMaps tracked 14 brands in 2,243 locations, with 82 locations opening and 33 closing in 2022, while in the Café And Beverage sector it tracked 19 brands in 3,093 locations, with 175 stores opening and 114 stores closing in 2022, representing a net change of 61 additional stores compared to the previous year.

Commenting on the overall findings across each of the retail sectors tracked, GapMaps Senior Analyst, Scott Johnson noted “each report provides brands with unique insights on key trends into the changing competitor landscape in their respective sectors. Overall, we have seen strong growth across all sectors in 2022, which points to a more buoyant market and greater provision of services to residents across the country.

“Our ability to use a range of data points to represent the most up-to-date view of physical network locations is helping brands make better location decisions as population shifts continue to have an impact on final location decisions and meeting customer needs.”

Founded in 2013, GapMaps is an Australian built- and owned company that makes it easy for businesses to make better location decisions by integrating the latest socio demographic, economic, customer and competitor intel on the simple-to-use GapMaps Live platform.

To request copies of the reports email to subscribe@gapmaps.com

Image: Australia’s largest chain Anytime Fitness had 558 locations at the end of January 2023.