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Anytime Fitness exceeds expectations

Sarah Stowe

The first non-US master franchisees for health club giant Anytime Fitness have exceeded all projections in their first year, report Australia and New Zealand masters, siblings Justin McDonell and Jacinta McDonell Jimenez.

McDonnell said “In our first 18 months of operation, weÕve sold more than 55 franchise territories in Australia. Of those territories, 23 clubs are already open and another 20 clubs will be open before the middle of 2010.”

“We had faith in the business model,” his sister said, “but we knew that introducing a new brand is never easy. We thought that opening five clubs in 12 months would be a good challenge for us.”

There are also five territories sold and two clubs open in New Zealand. The Australia and New Zealand franchisors plan to open 300 clubs within the next four years.

This local expansion is similar to Anytime FitnessÕs experience in US and Canada with 369 clubs opened last year.

John Kersh, vice president of international development for Anytime Fitness, said “Within the next few years we expect to open clubs in the UK, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, India and Mexico. It would be wonderful if master franchisees in those countries experienced the same sort of success that Justin and Jacinta are experiencing.”

The volume of memberships sold within each club has also succeeded expectations.

Anytime Fitness clubs never close, using state-of-the-art security and surveillance systems to ensure member safety even during unstaffed hours at the clubs.