Fitness market continues to grow in Poland

It is believed that over 50 million people across Europe now belong to a fitness club of some description; furthermore, this number is expected to increase to 80 million in just ten years. This figure is being helped along somewhat by countries like Poland who are experiencing extraordinary growth. In fact, Poland has one of the fastest growing fitness markets in Europe.

There are now a total of 2,500 clubs around the country with around 2,750,000 people registered to them. At the end of 2014, total revenues from all the clubs in Poland was thought to reach €860 million, an increase of €26 million from the previous year. With this in mind, it is one of the fastest growing markets not only in Eastern Europe but Europe as a whole. The revenue figure is calculated from memberships fees as well as some other operations. This increase in revenue came even though the average membership fee per month fell by just over €1 to €29.40.

The fitness market in the whole of Europe was valued at nearly €27 billion in 2014 with just five countries making up two thirds of this amount. Those five countries are the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany and Spain.

Market structure

With 1.4 million registered users, McFit in Germany is the market leader in Europe when it comes to number of clients. This contributed to an already impressive total of 9 million registered users across Germany; this was slightly higher than second place Great Britain who boasted 8.3 million people. However, in terms of revenue, Virgin Active in the United Kingdom topples every other firm after making half a billion euros in profit in just one year. David Lloyd can be found in second on this list with €400 million of profit with Health and Fitness Nordic rounding off the top three at €360 million.

Despite the success, there are no such companies in Poland with huge revenues as the market is split up very differently. Private businesses and clubs fill the majority of the market with the eight leading companies having less than 5% of the market share. Another difference can be found with the benefits systems in Poland which are somewhat rare in the rest of Europe. The company ‘Benefit Systems’ holds some 500,000 members making it the largest of its kind.

The growth of the fitness market in Poland has led to increased confidence for business owners; a year go, just 20% believed that they would experience a growth greater than 7.5%. However, just 12 months later, this figure has shot up to over 36%. Furthermore, over 45% believe that they will experience a growth percentage of between 2.5% and 7.5% over the next 12 months. Compared to the rest of Europe, this figure is extremely high; much higher than that of Russia who were at the very bottom of the list.

Over 7% of the European population regularly attend a fitness club with Poland sitting at the average mark, an increase of nearly 1 percentage point from the previous year. Sweden takes the top spot here with over 16.5% and the Netherlands are not far behind with 16%. The report releasing these figures was an interesting read for many and it seemed to point at a link between the increase/decrease of GDP and the change in the amount of club members; this was especially true in Poland itself as well as Turkey.

Investment opportunities

With the success all over Europe, a number of investments and mergers have been made across the market; there were 19 mergers in 2014 with over half of these boasting a big investment deal in the agreement.

In Poland, there are a number of investment opportunities and many investors have been attracted due to the sheer growth. However, the market structure makes it very difficult to merge companies and any deals that will be completed, will not make a huge difference to the market for some time to come. For this reason, other European countries are still looking more attractive when it comes to investment.

Many believe that one of the biggest challenges in years to come will be the revolution of the main demographics; the ages at which people are visiting fitness centres is rapidly changing. Przemyslaw Zawadzi, Deloitte expert, has said “Fitness clubs must prepare an offer for clients over the age of 50 as their number and expectations will be growing; this trend is also visible in Poland. The factor which, in turn, will fuel the industry is the development of new technologies.”

Dividing the market into different sections seems to be the logical move in Poland and could prove to be vital for any future growth in the market. If this were to occur, the biggest market would be the ‘mid-market’ which looks at offering a range of different services to large groups. Currently, 150 clubs are owned by the ten biggest club networks but this is set to rocket to around 375 in just four years time; this would reach 650,000 clients (just less than 30% of the market).

Other important sections of the market will include a low-cost section, a premium section and finally, a specialist boutique section. 

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