The IHRSA Global 25 provides a stat-based snapshot of the leading 25 health club operators around the world. Jon Feld takes a look at the 2014 figures

Last month, IHRSA announced the release of The IHRSA Global 25, which lists the top 25 health club companies worldwide in terms of revenue, memberships and units. This prestigious list of club operators is based on The 2015 IHRSA Global Report, which profiles nearly 400 club businesses worldwide.

 Last year, one of the key points we made when reporting on The IHRSA Global 25 was that it appeared operators had put the recession behind them, and were sorting out the keys to successful performance going forward. Based on the numbers produced by the Global 25 for 2014, it seems they’ve decoded the riddle, resulting in uniform growth across all categories.

Club count
In a macro sense, the ‘number of facilities owned’ chart (Figure 1) reveals both stability and expansion. The top six companies for 2014 are LA Fitness International, 24 Hour Fitness USA, HealthCity/Basic-Fit, GoodLife Fitness and Énergie Cardio, Fitness First Finance Ltd, and Virgin Active. The list is nearly identical to that of 2013, with a bit of jockeying between positions three and five.

The remaining roster includes some newcomers, like b-fit Health and Sports Inv and Trading Corp, McFit, Groupe Moving, Clever Fit, and Actic. Meanwhile stalwarts Holmes Place and David Lloyd Leisure have disappeared from the list, as have Pure Gym and LA fitness (UK). In addition SATS, Elixia and Fresh Fitness (Norway and Sweden) merged, becoming Health & Fitness Nordic.

Nearly every existing player from the 2013 list has grown in terms of number of facilities owned. Again using the top six as an example, their combined number grew from 2,206 to 2,349 year-on-year. Others experienced significant growth: ClubCorp expanded from slightly more than 150 units to 200; Gold’s Gyms International scaled from 110 to 148; and BioRitmo/SmartFit grew from 120 clubs to 186.

Units run by Town Sports International Holdings (NASDAQ: CLUB) fell from 162 to 158, but this drop was an anomaly.

Amassing members
In keeping with this across-the-spectrum growth, the data shows a similar trend for membership numbers. The top five (Figure 2) remain identical in rank from 2013 to 2014 – Planet Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness USA, Gold’s Gym International, Anytime Fitness and Virgin Active – but their overall membership numbers grew from around 14.8 million in 2013 to 16.7 million in 2014.

Once again, all those listed among the top 25 operators by member numbers experienced growth in 2014 – some in dramatic ways. GoodLife Fitness expanded from 790,441 members in 2013 to 1,062,000 last year; BioRitmo/SmartFit achieved a growth from 400,000 to 644,000; and Alex Fitness saw its member base grow from 300,000 to 350,000. While others had more modest growth, none of those businesses that featured on the 2013 list lost any ground.

Many operators made both the facilities and membership top 25 lists.

Money talks
The one number that trumps everything is revenue (see Figure 3), and in 2014 not one of the Global 25 had flat or reduced earnings. In fact, 15 of the top 25 experienced revenue growth of 10 per cent or more.
Topping the percentage growth charts were: Pump Spirit, whose revenue grew from US$4m to US$7m (+75 per cent); Orangetheory, which grew from US$7m to US$11m (+57 per cent); and Go Fit Portugal, whose revenues increased from US$36m to US$53m (+47 per cent).

Larger, more established players also saw double-digit growth. BioRitmo/SmartFit’s revenues jumped from US$150m to US$210m (+40 per cent); Planet Fitness’ numbers rose from US$211m to US$280m (+33 per cent); and Anytime Fitness went from US$799m to US$967m (+21 per cent). 2014 was a good year indeed!