Viva Leisure announces ‘outstanding’ financial results with no loss in year-on-year income

Viva Leisure Limited Managing Director and Chief Executive, Harry Konstantinou has hailed the business’ financial results for the 2019/20 financial year as “an outstanding result during an unprecedented period” while pointing to its multiple acquisitions having creating a foundation for further expansion.

The Canberra-based fitness and facilities operator’s financial information reported revenue of $40.89 million in 2019/20 while also advising that in the eight months to the end of February 2020 (immediately before the closure of facilities due to Coronavirus), revenue had been $33.16 million, compared to $20.48 million in the period from July 2018 to February 2019.

Released to the market, the report cited the impact of Coronavirus closures on the group’s income, noting “the main driver of performance is membership revenue which was severely impacted with the mandatory closure of all facilities on 23rd March 2020 for a period of 10+ weeks.

“This resulted in revenue falling short from previous guidance by approximately $18 million (which was withdrawn shortly after our clubs were mandatorily shut down due to COVID-19). For the eight months prior to COVID-19, EBITDA was tracking at 73.1% above the previous corresponding period.”

With Viva Leisure having taken on the ownership of Fit n Fast clubs, the report noted “this only included 15 days of Fit n Fast ownership.”

With Viva Leisure’s number of operating locations increased from 40 to 79 during FY2020, membership numbers grew from 54,039 as of 30th June 2019 to 94,196 at 30th June 2020, driven, in part, four acquisitions, totalling 26 new locations in the 2019/20 financial year.

The report advised that monthly member visitations peaked at 450,000 visits in February 2020 (excluding Fit n Fast) and had recovered to 500,000 (including Fit n Fast) as of July 2020.

Commenting on the results, Konstantinou advised “COVID-19 has affected the health club industry significantly after mandatory shutdown of facilities occurred on 23rd March 2020, effectively reducing Viva Leisure’s income to zero. Since then, my Team and I have worked diligently to return the business to pre-COVID levels.

“The FY2020 full year result is an outstanding result during an unprecedented period. The business is in an excellent position to continue development from here.”

Advising of current trading, Viva Leisure noted that is has seen strong recovery and performance from all business brands in the first two months of the current financial year.

In addition, it settled the acquisition of Australian Fitness Management, the master franchisor of Plus Fitness as of 21st August.

It went on to advise that this acquisition “will provide additional opportunities to grow the business into new markets (with) our strong balance sheet and return to positive cashflow (allowing) the company to take advantage of any future opportunities.”

Images: Viva Leisure brand hiit republic (top), the company's Coronavirus timeline (middle) and Viva Leisure's newly acquired Plus Fitness (below).