To what extent has the pandemic increased the importance of all types of wellness for consumers? To provide evidence of a ‘wellness expansion’, this article looks at the fitness sector – one of the sectors that has been hardest hit by the pandemic. The fitness research institute IHRSA recently documented the market declines for each region worldwide due to the permanent closures of 22% of all fitness facilities during the pandemic. However, in major cities around the globe, activity is returning to pre-pandemic levels – earlier than most analysts had expected. Nothing illustrates this better than the renewed investor interest in the sector, as illustrated by a few examples.

The largest Latin American gym brand SmartFit, for example, has just raised 450 million dollars in Brazil, while F45Training (a US fitness group with 1,750 studios worldwide) recently went public with a valuation of 1.45 billion dollars. The UK’s largest gym chain PureGym recently reached 94% of its former 2019 membership figures and is considering an IPO this year. Fitness boutiques are also reporting strong growth in membership numbers and footfall. So while the article must leave open the question of whether this strong interest is a temporary phenomenon linked to the recovery, it can nevertheless show that the markets are clearly betting on consumers returning to the gym.