⛫ Is Crunch Fitness Severely Underrated?

I’ve often heard multi-unit operators say “oh I’d love to get into Planet Fitness, but it’s difficult to break in now”. Well…Crunch might be the way to tap into a very similar business (with better financials).

Planet Fitness has long been considered one of the best franchises to own.

Planet fitness comparison

There’s a reason the GOAT of multi-unit franchising, Greg Flynn, chose it as his first non-restaurant brand to get into.

They dominate big box gyms with incredibly low pricing and “judgment-free” workout zones, tapping into a customer base that would otherwise be hesitant / cautious / insecure about working out in a gym.

In other words, it’s the gym marketed to “non-gym” people. With a ~$3.64 billion market cap and ~2,900 locations…it’s clearly working.

They market to the mainstream fitness consumer who wants legitimate options, but doesn’t want to pay boutique fitness or Equinox-level pricing.

They want the person who knows they want to work out, and their offerings reflect that with a wide array of dumbbell weight options, powerlifting stations, and group fitness classes ranging from Zumba, HIIT, yoga, cycling, etc.

From a positioning standpoint, they’re not really directly competitive.

But..it’s a big box gym that’s putting up incredible numbers, and I don’t think is being taken seriously enough by multi-unit franchisees.

Notes: Crunch AUV + location data is from their 2026 FDD, and the AUV is based on 331 franchised locations. Planet Fitness AUV + location data is from their 2025 FDD, and the AUV is based on 2,197 franchised locations. The 2026 FDD has not been released yet!

While we’re still waiting on the Planet Fitness 2026 FDD, I doubt we’ll see a massive jump in the AUV. But for the moment, the typical Crunch is far surpassing the typical Planet Fitness.

Of course, Crunch has a much smaller unit count at the moment, so perhaps as they continue to grow this AUV will come down. TBD on that.

Crunch profit analysis

Now let’s take a look at Crunch’s profit. But before doing so….

FD Capital offers sell-side advisory services to multi-unit franchisees, and franchisors, looking to sell their business.

Notes: These cohorts (starting with 12-23 months open) are based on 58, 53, 32, and 22 locations respectively.

Planet Fitness doesn’t break out detailed financials in their 2025 FDD, but we do know that based on 252 corporate stores, the average EBITDA was a touch under ~$680k.

So while Crunch is a much smaller brand, on a per unit basis, they’re simply outperforming Planet Fitness across the board.

And this matters because the investment ranges between these two brands are quite similar:

• Crunch Item 7: $2,147,500 - $5,367,000

• Planet Fitness Item 7: $1,525,000 - $5,221,500

This puts Crunch at an investment midpoint of about ~$3.75 million, and Planet Fitness’s at ~$3.37 million.

The biggest discrepancy in the ranges I could find was Planet Fitness’s cost for fitness equipment begins at just ~$37k, while Crunch’s starts at ~$850k.

All in all, I was really surprised to see how well Crunch is performing.

If you’re a multi-unit franchisee looking to expand your portfolio, at a minimum, I would be clocking this brand!

Sweetgreen Got Cooked (again) Sweetgreen’s traffic fell by 11.2% in Q1 2026, accounting for most of its 12.8% same-store sales drop. Yikes.

McDonald’s is Truly back on their Value Game Despite a challenging economic environment, the company delivered “compelling value that brings customers in the door…”

Burger King Up, Popeyes Down Years of investment in the burger brand’s operations and menu have won consumers back, but a loss of focus on service and the core menu hurt the chicken chain.

Saks Global Exiting Bankruptcy in June The luxury retail conglomerate said it would be profitable in three years and that, starting next fiscal year, revenue growth would average 7% annually.