The fitness market - Brazil

1.1 Definition and scope of study

The fitness market encompasses all sports center practices related to physical well-being. Fitness gyms generally offer group classes, strength training and cardio equipment, but sometimes also personalized coaching or even relaxation areas (juice bar, spa, meditation room...).

In addition to fitness clubs, the fitness market has recently included apps offering personal trainers, outdoor fitness communities, as well as apps and connected objects for measuring performance.

The fitness industry continues to experience strong growth, as evidenced by the total number of fitness club members, which increased by 5% in 2017, according to Deloitte.

However, there is currently a price war between players in terms of memberships. This obviously leads to a decrease in average revenue per club from 848,000 euros in 2012 to 595,000 euros in 2017 ; a 30% decrease over 5 years according to Stadline.

According to data from the Brazilian Association of Academies (ACAD-Brazil), the country already boasts over 34,500 clubs, occupying second place in the world rankings, behind only the United States. These figures continue to grow, proving that the fitness market is an attractive one for opening new businesses. Nevertheless, there are only 9.6 million registered users, well below the American figure of 57.2 million. These figures show that the number of users is not keeping pace with this volume of gyms, as many establishments have very low occupancy levels. Despite this, in terms of number of users, Brazil ranks fourth among the world's countries.