- January 22, 2025
Poland, Russia and Turkey are among the most promising fitness markets. In 2014, the Polish market in this segment grew the fastest among all European countries, and the revenues of fitness club owners amounted to PLN 3.6 billion. This trend is expected to continue this year as well. Every third owner of a fitness club expects an increase in income by more than 7.5%.
The trend towards a healthy lifestyle in Europe is steadily increasing, and with it the popularity of fitness clubs. According to the Deloitte report, the value of the European fitness market in 2014 was 26.8 billion euros, an increase of 1.6 billion euros compared to the previous year. Throughout Europe, 50 million people have practiced in clubs - in 10 years there will be as many as 80 million of them. The report shows that there is a correlation between a country's GDP level and the growing number of fitness club members. It is particularly visible in Poland and Turkey, which are considered to be the most prospective fitness markets despite the relatively low market penetration rate. The average penetration rate in the surveyed countries is 7.2%. In Poland it amounted to 7.1% in 2014 compared to 6.4% a year earlier.
- The indicator informing about how many people from a given society go to fitness clubs, in Turkey and Russia is at the level of 2-3%, in Poland at the level of 7%. This level is slightly worse than in Western Europe. In Germany, Great Britain or Scandinavian countries these numbers are higher, which is mainly due to the fact that fitness is popular among the elderly and they increase market penetration - says Newseria news agency Marcin Diakonowicz, Deloitte's partner in the audit department.
According to the report, there are currently about 2.5 thousand fitness clubs in Poland, i.e. almost 100 more than a year ago. The members of these clubs are 2.73 million Poles - a year earlier 2.48 million Poles had membership. Revenues of Polish clubs in 2014, generated mainly from membership fees, amounted to PLN 3.6 billion. According to experts, this means that the Polish fitness market is developing very dynamically and much faster than the European market. However, it is very specific due to its high degree of fragmentation.
- There are many small clubs on the market, which in the near future will either be consolidated or a large European player will enter the Polish market, which will take over the role of consolidator and market leader. The problem is that it is difficult to find such an entity which foreign investors, e.g. financial investors, could buy and use to consolidate the market, because all Polish entities are so small that they would not be able to consolidate the market. However, the only option is to establish a network of clubs from the very beginning, from scratch," says Marcin Diakonowicz.
According to experts, the Polish fitness market is currently facing two major challenges. One of them is the demographic change that is taking place throughout Europe, i.e. the ageing of the population. Today, the customers of fitness clubs are mainly people aged 20-40 years old, so it is important to attract people aged 50-70 years, as is the case in Germany or the Scandinavian countries.
The second challenge is the development of technology, which must be put to good use. The positive development direction of the Polish fitness market is evidenced by the mood of the club owners themselves, who are much more optimistic than the year before.
- We asked the owners of fitness clubs how they see the development of income next year. The vast majority said that they expected revenue growth of about 2.5-7.5 per cent. This is the best European result - says Marcin Diakonowicz.
Owners of Polish fitness clubs are among the most optimistic in Europe. According to 36.4% of them, their revenues will increase this year above 7.5%. A year ago, only 20% of respondents had similar forecasts.
