--- title: "⛫ Is Crunch Fitness Severely Underrated?" url: https://burnaze.com/article/327ec21d-5887-4777-b5a5-af4a1e68b682 source: "Empires Weekly" original_url: https://empirespod.substack.com/p/is-crunch-fitness-severely-underrated author: "Patrick Buckley" category: "Gym & HVLP" industry: "Fitness" segment: "Gym & HVLP" published: 2026-05-10T15:01:10.000Z modified: 2026-10-31T13:16:17.541Z image: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!99B4!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F070dcf7f-01a4-4573-ab79-18497ed3d710_1600x736.png --- # ⛫ Is Crunch Fitness Severely Underrated? **TL;DR:** Crunch Fitness is considered a high-value franchise alternative to Planet Fitness, with better financials and a similar investment range. Crunch Fitness has a higher average unit volume (AUV) than Planet Fitness, making it an attractive option for multi-unit franchisees. *By Patrick Buckley, originally published in Empires Weekly on 2026-05-10. [Read the original](https://empirespod.substack.com/p/is-crunch-fitness-severely-underrated).* ## Key facts - Crunch Fitness has better financials than Planet Fitness - Crunch Fitness AUV surpasses Planet Fitness AUV - Similar investment ranges between Crunch and Planet Fitness ## Story 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. ## Entities - Fitness (sector) - fitness industry (topic) - Planet Fitness (company) - Crunch Fitness (company) - Empires Weekly (publication) - Patrick Buckley (person) - Greg Flynn (person) - unit performance (topic) - investment ranges (topic) - franchise comparison (topic) - gym franchises (topic) - FD Capital (investor) --- Originally reported by Patrick Buckley, Empires Weekly (https://empirespod.substack.com/p/is-crunch-fitness-severely-underrated). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/327ec21d-5887-4777-b5a5-af4a1e68b682).