Franchise Times Ranks the Largest Fitness Franchisees

Franchise Times launched its Fitness Finance & Growth section in June 2025, and this spring added a corresponding conference by the same name as interest in the category from franchisees, investors and lenders remains elevated. Franchisors of boutique studio brands and high-value, low-price gyms likewise continue their aggressive development pushes. (The 2027 Fitness Finance & Growth Conference is April 12-14 at the Loews Chicago O’Hare Hotel.)

Fitness franchise growth

The category’s momentum hasn’t slowed, as evidenced by the collective unit expansion from the biggest operators. Those on FT’s Top Fitness Franchisees ranking, a list of the 25 largest multi-unit fitness operators in the United States, own 2,761 units, up more than 30 percent from about 2,150 last year. And changes keep coming that are driving growth well into the future.

Shifts away from cardio toward strength training and an emphasis on recovery have altered service offerings for many brands. Some companies are embracing flexible gym footprints or creating new format options that have opened fitness brands up to markets they hadn’t previously considered.

And technology is changing the game. Each of the executives interviewed here mentioned artificial intelligence and its growing impact on the business and fitness sides of the industry.

“We are doubling down,” said Tony Hartl, CEO of fast-growing Crunch Fitness franchisee Undefeated Tribe, of his company’s approach to AI. “I’d love to see the parent company invest more.”

Operator insights

Four operators shared their insights on the opportunities and challenges facing them: Luke Andrus, CEO of Blue Star Fitness, an operator of Anytime Fitness gyms; Justin Drummond, president of Ohana Growth Partners, a Planet Fitness franchisee; David Schuck, CEO of Spartan Fitness Holdings, which operates Club Pilates studios; and Hartl.

Their optimism was evident; their concerns were varied. They commented on issues ranging from AI and other technology advancements to the challenges of finding employees and real estate to their efforts to create positive experiences for their employees. Responses have been edited for length and clarity. Here’s what they had to say.

Luke Andrus: The faster opportunity is acquisition, and right now, Anytime Fitness is a great franchise for that. I do see a ton of opportunity for development, especially since COVID. So many people went out to the suburbs. The beauty of the Anytime Fitness model is that they can survive very well in rural environments. Blue Star still intends to open two to three locations a year, in addition to acquiring locations.

Justin Drummond: Identifying good locations to develop new sites. Also, I think the big opportunity is going to be how do we continue to retain membership. That’s across the board in the industry because there’s a lot of different competition these days, whether that’s digitally or in person with gyms or studios.

Tony Hartl: Capital hasn’t been an issue. Real estate hasn’t really been an issue. It’s really getting the right leadership and people. It’s more of a supply side of talent because there’s a strong demand when you’re growing this fast. We’re seeing total addressable market growing because people, when you think about fitness, whether it’s GLP-1s or mental health post-COVID, they’re investing in their health. Longevity is becoming a bigger thing. I just think people are more aware of wellness than our parents.

David Schuck: I’m in the Pilates industry, and with fitness in general, it’s about how can you resonate with your consumer, exceed their expectations and provide value for the long term. So in our business, it’s very important for us to focus on customer experience. We pour that into our staff and our highly trained, passionate Pilates instructors to keep that customer experience at a level that separates us from competitors.

It’s one thing to be able to meet your customer where they are, but you have to keep them in. And so, staying fresh and innovative, and making sure you’re staying where the customer is and where our members are, is extremely important.

Andrus: The biggest challenge is members in an industry that’s continuing to be saturated. We are constantly revisiting our price structure, we’re doubling down on our services, like personal training. We’ve embraced insurance reimbursement programs. The biggest challenge is getting more butts in the seats.

Drummond: Some of the challenges come from the competition across the board. There are a lot of different modalities. We keep up with what every sector of the fitness industry is doing, whether that’s HVLP, studios, whether that’s full service, how everyone is moving in their own lanes, and how does that impact us.

Hartl: The biggest challenge is we need to add 1,500 employees next year, so having the appropriate mechanisms to recruit and hire. That’s a lot of people. You also need to try to keep as many of the 4,500 employees we have around as possible. We’re addressing it by investing in the talent acquisition department, using LinkedIn and using technology to save time with the process. On the learning and growth side, we’ve had to build out the curriculum to get people up to speed.

Schuck: Things change, so the challenge would be nothing ever stays the same. It’s not Club Pilates 2022, when we didn’t have any sort of competitive option for our consumer. The marketing landscape is different.

You have AI. You have Google. When somebody types in “Pilates near me,” they’re getting AI-generated responses and navigating that.

So, we’re making sure we’re staying nimble on our marketing to stay fresh. Industry research shows that 43 percent of active studios on major booking networks listed Pilates as their primary workout modality. There’s a rising competitive landscape, so making sure that we’re continuing to dominate in that field.

You have to evolve. You have to grow with your customer. There’s been a shift away from more cardio, high-intensity fitness into more core flexibility, strength training, muscle building. And so, making sure we’re in prime position to be in the middle of the fairway with where the science is, but making sure we’re staying where our consumer wants to be. That’s tough.

Andrus: We have a great sales process. Our vice president of sales, John Witzke, has been crucial in driving us forward. We focus very hard on community efforts. Being a staple in our communities has helped us a lot. I think a lot of people put all their money in Meta and they put all their money in other stuff, but they miss out on the community side.

Drummond: We have a big marketing funnel, so continuing to stay front of mind when you think about gym opportunities in any region or territory in the country. One of the big things for us is just providing economical gym access to the masses. So as long as we can stay in front of the potential consumer, whether that’s digitally, on TV or in the communities. We try to spend a good amount just being a part of the fabric of the community we service.

Hartl: Two big levers there. Opening gyms just creates demand, because you’re opening in markets where you don’t currently exist, so you’re able to drive demand through expansion. The second is close to 58 percent of all memberships come online right now. That’s huge.

Schuck: Hugely important piece of the business. It doesn’t matter how good your in-studio experience is if you don’t bring it to enough people. It’s very important for us to continue to execute well on our new member offers to stay relevant, make sure we’re driving our sales training as we grow, make sure we have the right leaders and studios doing the right things and making sure that we’re equipping them with the tools and resources to execute.

Marketing and technology

One pressure we’ve seen is there’s definitely been a marketing disruption with a lot of the AI changes and algorithm changes. You’re getting a lot more AI responses. If you’re not doing a good job as a brand making sure you’re the authority on a subject, you’re getting lost in the shuffle.

Drummond: I think they’re focused on the right things right now. I think they’re focused on the brand at large and how we can continue to be a major player in the HVLP category and the broader fitness industry.

Hartl: They’re doing it, but I’d like to see continued investment in website checkout flow optimization, like using test-and-learn methodology, and then a huge investment in AI.

We’ve already stood up our own AI department. In the past, most of your programming or data analytics was on the technology side, but what we’re doing now is building out on the AI side something that sits in the cloud through Claude, and it’s doing a lot of automation for us to give us data insights. I’d love to see the parent company invest more into AI.

Schuck: The role of a franchisor that I see in this current environment is leading the system with the franchisees to hammer on all of those things that I’ve mentioned. So a solid franchisor can build the brand, provide the roadmaps, but I think more importantly foster an environment with the franchisee base to be innovative, to grow, to push boundaries, and in our case deliver Pilates to as many people as possible. They have a hugely valuable piece in that value chain.

So one of our core deliverables as an operating business is to have an amazing customer experience and have the staff that can deliver that. On the franchisor side, it’s let’s provide all the tools and ingredients and recipes, and really provide a great lab for a franchisee to execute without friction.

Andrus: We’re going to continue to press down on recovery. We’ve been opening locations with red light saunas, and using recovery tools such as Hyperice Normatec leg sleeves, and creating recovery rooms for our members at extra cost. We’re also looking into more nutritional counseling. Anytime Fitness corporate has been working on that; we could use some work on monetizing it.

Drummond: I see a lot of people tying into global fitness racing series Hyrox or other challenges. We’re watching the modalities that are just being brought into the HVLP system. Some of the Crunches are now incorporating a lot of these elements. Some of these modalities and partnerships are going to be an additional expense for them and they’re going to have to weather the tide of this new Muse from Meta application that’s coming out that is attacking subscription models. Cancellations will impact those businesses.

Hartl: The big trend I’m seeing right now is the evolution of small-format studios, so this different level of physical fitness. Pilates is one of the fastest-growing categories for us. We’re seeing personal training grow. People are really recognizing that one-to-one could be more effective.

Schuck: The biggest trend we’re continuing to see is a shift away from cardio, away from high intensity, and more into muscle building. Not bulking up, but muscle toning and making sure that you’re building and keeping muscle as you go through your fitness journey. Core strength, flexibility, recovery. We’re well-positioned to capitalize on that.

We’re also seeing the disruption of AI. It’s something that’s here to stay. You can’t go all-in and create too much chaos, but the people that buy in early and are familiar and build their systems capable of growing with AI, you’re going to be better positioned a year from now, two years from now, as the industry continues growing.

Andrus: We’re always keeping on an eye on HVLP competitors and what they’re bringing to the table. The model works, but it’s not a secret that it pulls a lot of leads away, especially with what they’re able to put into marketing, like Crunch Fitness, Planet Fitness, EoS, Club 4 Fitness. We feel like Anytime Fitness is the ‘Cheers’ of the fitness industry. The balance we strike is we feel like a studio, but we have the amenities of larger gyms. We don’t need 13,000 members. We can succeed with lower membership bases and we’ve created a place where everybody knows your name.

Drummond: Just the macro economy and what things are transpiring across the world that impact overall business. Those are the things that keep me up at night. Just thinking about how gas prices, people’s habits and spending, what does that look like next year and beyond?

Hartl: Obviously, if there was a war, you have macro issues that impact people’s pocketbooks, like with gasoline.

Schuck: I am very bullish on fitness and on Pilates. But any worry I have about any one particular thing could be: How do we make sure we have engaged team members? How do we make sure we keep our culture at Spartan? How do we make sure that we work with Club Pilates as the franchisor to make sure we’re relevant in the space?

The one thing that is really exciting is we have an opportunity as operators to have a big impact on what happens in our four walls with our customer experience. As much as you can get worried about a million different things, if you back up and focus on creating raving fans, happy members—and the way you do that is by having talented, high quality, high character staff in your studios that are happy as well—it really does solve a lot of the potential stressors that any operator has.