Purpose Brands

Scale Is the Starting Point

Purpose Brands’ franchise structure makes that behind-the-scenes work especially important. More than 99% of its locations are franchised, putting the economics of individual operators at the center of the company’s strategy.

Those franchisees are dealing with wage pressure, financing costs, intense competition, and increasingly selective consumers. Purpose Brands sees purchasing power, marketing, technology, and data as areas where the combined organization can give individual operators an advantage.

“Our job is to use our scale to help improve unit economics and give franchisees capabilities they couldn’t as easily build on their own,” Anderson adds.

At Anytime Fitness, that also means moving beyond the traditional idea of 24-hour gym access. The brand is building a broader proposition around training, nutrition, and recovery, both to give members more value and to create additional opportunities for franchisees.

The same principle applies internationally, although the playbook changes by brand.

Anytime Fitness’ relatively flexible, lower-overhead model gives it broad applicability. Orangetheory’s coached boutique format requires more consideration of market maturity, density, and familiarity with boutique fitness. Purpose Brands is working to improve Orangetheory’s international economics through changes such as smaller international studios and locally sourced equipment.

That leaves considerable room for expansion despite the company’s already enormous footprint.

“Scale doesn’t mean we’re saturated,” Anderson says.

Purpose Brands sees significant white space for Anytime Fitness and more international runway for Orangetheory, with Latin America and Eastern Europe among its areas of interest. But Anderson frames the objective as something more disciplined than planting flags.

“The opportunity is not simply to add units, but to put the right brand and model into the right markets with operators who can build them for the long term,” she adds.

More From the Members Already There

There is another growth opportunity hiding in plain sight: 6.2 million existing members.

Across Purpose Brands, individual concepts are broadening what they offer. The Bar Method is adding Bar Pilates. Orangetheory is introducing more strength-forward experiences. Anytime Fitness is building around training, nutrition, and recovery. Technology increasingly connects those experiences inside and outside the facility.

“Growth isn’t only about acquiring more members or opening more locations,” Anderson says. “It’s also about helping the people already in our system get better outcomes, giving them more reasons to engage with us, and extending that relationship beyond the four walls.”

That may ultimately be the more revealing way to look at Purpose Brands after its first full year. The merger immediately created the industry’s largest fitness footprint. The harder work comes afterward: determining whether all that scale can make individual brands, franchisees, and member relationships stronger.

Purpose Brands’ answer so far is that it is not building one giant fitness brand, but building an organization capable of making several very different brands better.

Worth Watching: Purpose Brands sees continued international white space despite its enormous footprint, particularly in Latin America and Eastern Europe, while also exploring how its smaller brands could eventually travel beyond the US.