Viva Leisure reports 55.4% revenue rise over last financial year

Canberra-based Viva Leisure has reported revenues of $141.2 million - a rise of 55.4% - over the past financial year across its brands including Plus Fitness, Club Lime, Hiit Republic and Groundup.

The preliminary results for the 2022/23 financial year show that the group experienced a 56% increase in visits by members with a total of 25 million visits to facilities recorded and an average of 68,397 visits per day.

This visitation represents 480,000 attendances  a week across our Viva Leisure’s 345,000 members with a visit recorded every 1.26 seconds of the day on average.

Viva Leisure's unaudited revenue result is slightly above previous guidance of $137 to $140 million for the year, and EBITDA is expected to be at the upper end of previous guidance of $28 to $30 million.

Commenting on the results, Viva Leisure Chief Executive and Managing Director, Harry Konstantinou told Business News Australia “we are extremely pleased with the results delivered. They demonstrate the resilience of the business in an economic environment where discretionary spend has been impacted by higher interest rates and rising inflation.

“Despite these headwinds, the company has achieved record levels of memberships, revenue and locations.

"Our core Club Lime brand remains very strong, as does the GroundUp boutiques.

“The pricing approachability of both brands has resulted in the resilience of the customer that sees strong value in maintaining health and wellness, not at the expense of cuts in discretionary spend."

Noting that the more premium brand, Hiit Republic, is performing well considering the economic backdrop and curtailing of some discretionary spend, Konstantinou stated "Hiit Republic is the smallest membership base of Viva, encompassing approximately 3% of the membership base," he explains.

"We anticipate its higher pricing point to limit growth in FY24 compared to our core business."

Konstantinou highlights consumers continue to be "highly amenable" to their health and wellness, even despite the economic backdrop.

"We pride ourselves on encouraging our membership to live healthy lifestyles in a social and welcoming environment, which has been well demonstrated in the 25 million visits to our clubs in FY23.

"Investment in the industry is exemplified by Viva Leisure's remarkable achievement of selling four Plus Fitness Franchise Territories in the month of June alone."

Viva also notched a revenue record for the month of June at $12.9 million, also representing a 26.4% jump on the prior month while continuing to open new locations.

In recent weeks this had included the group’s 102nd Club Lime gym in the Sydney suburb of Gladesville and the 103rd at Robina on the Gold Coast.

Commenting on this, Konstantinou wrote on social media that its “nice to be expanding our Queensland network.”

He added that the openings mean that “we added 20 corporate locations to our network this financial year, one new location every 18 days … an amazing effort team.”

Images: Club Lime's newly opened locations in Robina (top) and Gladesville (below).