IHRSA Releases 2008 IHRSA Global Report: The State of the Health Club Industry

BOSTON-June 3, 2008- The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) announced today the release of the 2008 IHRSA Global Report: The State of the Health Club Industry. The report contains the latest financial information on the global fitness industry, including a comprehensive industry overview featuring analysis on the industry from 21 industry leaders from independent clubs, large club chains, leading industry suppliers, club associations and federations.

“While the health and fitness industry historically has been fairly recession-resilient, it is certainly not immune to economic factors that effect the global fitness market- among these factors are the current credit crunch, increased competition and rising expenses,” said Katie Rollauer, IHRSA’s Senior Manager of Research. “However, effective club operators recognize the power of building strong brands, and have begun to align themselves with the medical community and health insurance companies. The fitness industry’s greatest assets continue to be the people who comprise our industry: entrepreneurs, suppliers and millions of health club members. These ambassadors position the health and fitness industry for continued growth- in any economy,” she said.

Findings in the report indicate the total number of health clubs increased by 6% to 108,059 individual club locations worldwide, while revenues increased by 10.2% to $61.4 billion. However, the total number of worldwide members, 106.7 million, has held steady. This stalling of consumer demand has predominantly been observed in the U.S., where the previously projected 44.1 million U.S. health club members for 2007 has been restated based on actual data to a final total of 41.5 million members for 2007, a non-statistically significant change over 2006, 2005, and 2004. Despite the possibility that these figures suggest the industry may have begun to adjust to the slightly slower rate of growth in consumer demand, industry revenues have continued to climb, which suggests that clubs are collecting more revenue per member than ever before.

While consumer demand appears healthy in the European markets, continuing consolidation of high-end luxury fitness chains will provide chains with greater economies of scale and increasing interest, and investment from other industries- such as property investment companies, football clubs, and hospital groups, will enable additional growth. Despite local operating restraints in Asia, growth in the number of clubs and members has been very strong in key countries, such as China and India.

The “Industry Research” section of the report includes information on the top ten global markets with details on industry revenue numbers, club totals, membership numbers and penetration rates, in addition to sections on the Americas, Asia Pacific and European markets. The “Company Profiles” section highlights more than 170 leading club companies from around the world, including financial and membership information. The last section of the report includes supplier profiles, which provide clubs with useful information about products, services and software.

The 2008 IHRSA Global Report is available in both print and PDF format with member and non-member pricing on www.ihrsastore.com. For media inquiries, please contact pr@ihrsa.org or +1 617-951-0055.

The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) is a not-for-profit trade association representing health and fitness facilities, gyms, spas, sports clubs, and suppliers worldwide. The association’s membership includes over 9,100 clubs in 75 countries, along with over 730 industry suppliers.
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