2025 is going to be an exciting time for the fitness industry. Plans are already well underway for the ‘golden quarter’ of Q1 from January to March, where gyms are poised to capitalise on people making a healthy start to the year and tackling their New Year’s resolutions.

Right now, the fitness industry is the healthiest it’s ever been. The UK market reached an all-time high value of £5.9 billion in 2024 and more people than ever now have a gym membership (2024 State of the UK Fitness Industry Report).

And there still room for growth. Whilst there are more members than ever in the UK, the penetration rate for the fitness industry stands at just 15.9%, representing a huge opportunity for the future.

Kevin Yates, CEO of Snap Fitness EMEA, explains why there’s no better time to invest in the fitness industry.

• There’s still demand for more gyms

A common misconception about our industry is that the market is saturated and there’s no room for more gyms. The reality is, there’s still so much opportunity out there. We use data and insights to map potential new locations every day and there are still hundreds of areas that have latent demand for gym memberships. Proving that’s still the case, our new gyms in 2024 have opened with 44% more members than those in 2023 and we’re confident we’ll see that trend continue.

• The fitness industry is more resilient to rising costs

It’s well documented how rising operational costs are hitting businesses where it hurts, particularly those operating quick service restaurants and in hospitality. While we’re not exempt from these rises ourselves, economic changes have a significantly reduced impact on our franchisees’ profit margins. 

For example, gyms have lean staffing models and a payroll to revenue ratio of around 10%, less than half of what is typically seen in service and retail industries. This means ongoing, forecasted rises in minimum wage are not felt as hard. 

• Gen Zs and millennials put health and fitness first

These two generations provide gym operators with a huge opportunity. 62% of our current membership base is made up of Gen Zs and millennials and that is only going to rise.

Gen Zs are more health conscious than the generations that have gone before them and see being active as a key part of their lifestyle. Recent research has even shown that they prefer socialising in a gym environment rather than a pub, times are changing!

Having grown up with technology and everything they want at their fingertips, they have high expectations which we need to meet. We’re evolving our model by investing heavily in our member app and digital experience, as well as introducing new signature group exercise classes that can’t be found anywhere else, accessed both physically and digitally.

If you don’t cater for this audience, you’re going to be left behind.

• Landlords love gyms

Location is king for a successful gym and we’re now seen as great tenants by landlords and property owners. We’ve been able to fight off household names in retail to secure some fantastic properties recently, particularly within retail park locations which are ideal for our model. Our property team has built some established relationships across the UK & Ireland, meaning we’re able to offer franchisees ideal locations which set them up for success.