Strategic Expansion with GapMaps – Anytime Fitness Asia
Anytime Fitness is a globally renowned franchise of 24-hour health and fitness clubs. With more than 5,000 locations in 50 countries, it has established itself as a premier destination for individuals seeking round-the-clock access to state-of-the-art fitness facilities. The franchise’s success is built on its commitment to its members with convenient, accessible, and high-quality fitness experiences.
Inspire Brands Asia, the master franchisee for Anytime Fitness Asia, operates in eight countries across the Asia Pacific region – The Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Vietnam –– a broad and ever-expanding territory that requires accurate data intelligence to assess market potential and determine suitable locations for new fitness clubs.
Leveraging GapMaps for Strategic Expansion
Anytime Fitness Asia faced the challenge of identifying optimal locations for new club openings across this diverse region. To address this, the franchise partnered with GapMaps, a leading provider of location intelligence tools.
This has enabled Anytime Fitness Asia to successfully identify prime locations for its new clubs, resulting in increased memberships and enhanced market presence. This strategic approach is pivotal in ensuring the franchise can continue its growth trajectory, solidifying its position as a leader in the 24-hour fitness industry.
Anytime Fitness Asia has worked closely with GapMaps to establish the size of the addressable market in each country to determine the optimal number of gyms for each country, region, and city. According to the company’s Commercial and Compliance Director, Nick Cowpar, this is a complex task given the different maturity levels in each market.
“The fitness market in Asia has different maturity levels. For example, Singapore is similar to Australia, both advanced markets, whereas The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia are a little bit behind. But what we find interesting is members and potential members in all markets are very conscious about their health. But we don’t just open clubs in affluent areas, we also open clubs in provinces, which can be some of our most successful clubs.”
A key reason for selecting GapMaps was down to the quality and range of data available in GapMaps Live. “The demographics and data that we needed was previously not available, so choosing GapMaps was an easy decision for the business,” continues Cowpar.
“Before we would rely on franchisees, but when you have different maturity levels in each country, adding more gyms gets a lot tighter and you can no longer drop them on every corner. So we went to GapMaps to get the demographics and the data to make strategic and informed decisions, which ensures we’re protecting the brand and the longevity of each gym, as opposed to just fast growth.”
Operational Implementation
Operationally, the growth strategy was uploaded to the GapMaps Live platform. This allows local market operators to utilise the platform to visualise the strategy and perform feasibility analyses on new gym opportunities. This ensures a data-driven and systematic expansion process, shifting away from what was previously a manual and time-consuming approach.
Informed Expansion Strategy
By leveraging the strategic data provided by GapMaps, Anytime Fitness Asia is able to identify optimal locations for new gym franchises in one to three days, saving time and improving approval rates – a process that previously took weeks and months. This has allowed them to:
• Quickly tap into underserved areas with high demand for fitness services
• Enhance brand presence and capture market share more effectively
• Contribute to sustainable growth and profitability
Enhanced Franchise Sales
The utilisation of GapMaps significantly impacts franchise sales for Anytime Fitness Asia. Prospective franchisees receive comprehensive data and insights derived from GapMaps, empowering them to make informed data-driven decisions regarding franchise investment. By presenting market demand, competition analysis, and consumer behaviour trends, the organisation can more easily demonstrate the viability and potential success of new franchise locations. This transparency and data-driven approach has:
• Instilled confidence in prospective franchisees
• Facilitated smoother negotiations and faster sales closures
• Resulted in a surge in franchise sales, driving revenue growth and expanding its network of gyms across the region
• Reduced the risk of cannibalisation and improved success
“When we enter a new market or have a very low footprint, GapMaps helps us plot new gyms in even more strategic positions, such as looking at the outskirts of a main city, assessing whether there is enough consuming class and enough money to be successful. In these growth markets where we are building the brand, GapMaps has been immensely helpful in finding optimal locations,” Cowpar adds.
Key Feature
The GapMaps Live Drive Time catchment enables the planning team to build a catchment based on a specific drive time, and identify natural barriers. The ease of dropping a pin and choosing a drive time for any time of day generates a catchment based on the parameters supplied. This provides a better data-driven understanding of who is able to reach a proposed gym location conveniently.
Fuelling Growth in 2024 and Beyond
As Anytime Fitness Asia gears up for what is one of its biggest growth years in 2024, GapMaps continues to serve as a cornerstone of its success. The strategic insights provided equip Anytime Fitness Asia with the necessary tools to navigate market complexities, capitalise on emerging opportunities, and overcome challenges.
Using GapMaps to plot new gym locations, the business is poised to capitalise on burgeoning fitness trends and consumer demand. This approach will support and drive unprecedented growth and solidify Anytime Fitness Asia’s position as a leader in the fitness industry across the Asian market.
Anytime Fitness Asia has a target of reaching 450 gyms by the end of 2024, and by 2030 will surpass 1,000 clubs, more doubling its current footprint. This ambitious growth plan underscores the importance of strategic partnerships and data-driven decision-making in achieving sustained success in what is a dynamic and competitive fitness industry.
Partnership and Collaboration
Anytime Fitness Asia’s partnership with GapMaps has proven to be instrumental in navigating the complexities of market expansion. By providing strategic data and operational tools, GapMaps has empowered Anytime Fitness Asia to identify optimal locations, enhance franchise sales, and fuel growth.
GapMaps plays a pivotal role for Anytime Fitness Asia in achieving its ambitious goals and solidifying its position as a leader in the fitness industry.
Commenting on the relationship, Cowpar adds, “GapMaps is great company to work with. Tim and the market planning team are all very helpful and always come forward on certain projects to make it happen quickly and easily for us. It’s very much a strategic partnership that we value, and that is obvious based on what we’ve invested with GapMaps to help us expand across our eight Asian markets. The investment has been worth every penny.”
