Empowered Brands, the franchise investment business that acquired énergie Fitness out of a CVA in June 2020, has announced plans to accelerate the roll-out of its four key brands in Europe. The company also aims to expand, with the acquisition of new businesses.

In addition to énergie Fitness, the current portfolio includes boutique operator, Victus Soul, HIIT concept, Thé Yard and an upcoming launch called Raw – a 'digitally-enabled' boutique studio.

In a precursor to this announcement, the company signed a master franchise deal with Rod Hill in October 2020 to develop 75 énergie Fitness and Thé Yard locations in Spain. There are currently 100 énergie franchise sites and 50 Thé Yard sites open in the UK and Ireland, with some of the latter being club-in-club facilities within énergie locations. Victus Soul, which is targeting European capital cities, such as Paris and Barcelona, currently has one site in London.

In February 2019, the co-founders of Victus Soul, Paul Trendell and Chris Djuric, told HCM they planned to undertake a European expansion in collaboration with énergie Fitness.

It's thought these intentions were disrupted by the Pandemic, with the new announcement seeing plans getting back on track.

Jan Spaticchia, chair of Empowered Brands, said the company’s aim is to become the 'most dominant fitness franchise business in Europe'.

"We're leveraging the size and scale of our central franchise operation and combining this with the power of entrepreneurship," he said. "An Empowered Brand is an innovative disruptor in the health, fitness and wellness marketplace.

"Passionate entrepreneurs with an appetite to grow a business rapidly can achieve much more than they ever thought possible with our brands.

“Our expansion plans are a vote of confidence in an industry we believe will become more important in the life of nations post-COVID than at any other time in history," he continued. "We're immensely proud that our franchisees have truly proven the power of local ownership and delivered unprecedented levels of engagement with customers."

Empowered Brands launched a new website today.