Losses due to the pandemic have led to some upheaval in the sector.
Western Australia has been a firm market for gym franchising during the past year, a period during which lockdowns have hit operators across the country.
Anytime Fitness has 38 locations in WA, while Jetts 24 Hour Fitness has 43 locations, unchanged from two years ago, according to Business News’s Data & Insights.
Snap Fitness has 31 locations.
Anytime north-west regional manager Simon Thompson said WA’s gym industry was one of the most competitive nationally for franchise gyms.
“The Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast are [also] extremely competitive, but while there’s plenty of franchises [there], there’s a lot more independents as well, so they kind of flesh out a lot of the competitive marketplace that we see in places like that,” Mr Thompson told Business News.
“But my sense is that there’s well and truly a lot of options in WA.”
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WA’s success in preventing COVID-19 outbreaks mean the state’s fitness clubs have avoided the worst effects of lockdowns, which Mr Thompson said could be both a boon and a curse.
“Largely, the impact of COVID has been [that] people have prioritised their health and fitness and have realised how important it is,” he said.
“[However] every time we do a snap lockdown, it has an impact on clubs.
“People being worried financially means they tend to pull the purse strings tight.
“What we generally see is that the members, if they’re confident in the cleanliness and the hygiene practices within the club, visitation is still really strong.
“For clubs that are less good at that [hygiene], they might see members are less inclined to want to turn up as much.”
Mr Thompson said the franchise model provided an edge in marketing.
“It is really important to get your point of difference across in a competitive space like that,” he said.
“Being a franchise and having owners in the business [means] when you do get someone come into [a fitness] club, it becomes a lot easier to demonstrate that value proposition; but it is a very noisy space out there in the digital space around getting attention.”
A cut above
The state’s top franchisor is still Jim's Group, according to Data & Insights, with 354 franchisees in the state, nearly double the second-ranked franchisee, commercial cleaning business Jani-King Australasia.
Sitting at number six on the list is the biggest mover in the Business News top 10 WA franchises.
Smartline Personal Mortgage Advisers has increased its portfolio of franchisees by 28 per cent, adding a further 17 locations since 2019.
That brings its total to 76 locations.
The growth follows REA Group, which owns realestate.com.au, acquiring 100 per cent ownership of Smartline in July 2019.
Mortgage Choice mortgage brokers dropped from rank 14 to 22, with 37 locations this year.
Smartline’s move upwards bumped McDonald’s and Domino's down from sixth and seventh in 2019 to seventh and eighth, respectively, in 2021, despite maintaining their numbers at 72 and 73 locations, respectively.
Red Rooster has maintained its 64 locations over the past two years but has moved up from position 10 to squeeze in at number nine.
That move was prompted by the loss of 13 Bakers Delight locations and 18 domestic cleaning services operating under the Housework Heroes brand.
Housework Heroes took a large dive from rank nine to 13, with just 50 locations left this year.
Bakers Delight’s 58 locations led it to be ranked 1oth on the Data & Insights list, down from position eight in 2019 when it had 71 locations.
Mirroring Bakers Delight’s dip is Brumby's Bakeries.
With 23 locations in 2021, Brumbies dropped 35 per cent of its 35 locations from 2019.
Sandwich store Subway Australia and fuel station network Puma Energy have both held their places at fourth and fifth, respectively, but Subway put on 13 new stores in WA, bringing its total to 144 locations statewide.
New entrants to the top 20 include Boost Juice with 43 locations in 2020 and Poolwerx Corporation with 55.
Drive-through coffee franchise Muzz Buzz dropped nearly 10 places down from 19th to 28th on the list, and from 40 locations to 36 locations.
Chicken Treat fell from 13th in the rankings to 19th with 38 outlets in 2020 down from 50 in 2019.
