Not surprisingly, health club operators around the world are projecting lower revenue in 2020 compared to 2019. How much lower? On average, operators project their 2020 revenue will be 63 percent of their 2019 revenue, according to the ClubIntel report “The Fitness Industry’s Re-Awakening Post-COVID-19 Facility Closures.”
The report was based on a survey that was conducted globally during the full month of September, collecting 556 usable responses that represented approximately 7,300 health clubs.
Digging deeper into the revenue projections, the report noted that 75 percent of operators project their 2020 revenues will be below 75 percent of 2019 revenue while 45 percent say it will be between 51 percent and 75 percent.
“Most operators cannot generate a positive EBITDA, let alone positive net cash flow, unless they achieve at least 80 percent of their desired revenue targets,” the report’s authors wrote. “Consequently, the revenue projections from this report indicate most fitness operators will be in the red for 2020.”
Eighty-six percent of U.S. health club operators who applied for Paycheck Protection Program loans received them, averaging $256,000 in funds, according to the report, but only 58 percent of respondents said they applied for the loans.
“It appears the U.S. fitness industry missed an opportunity to get more operators to apply, as the success rate for those who applied was extremely high,” the authors wrote.
As of Sept. 1 when 13 percent of health clubs remained closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the average percentage of members who had returned to their reopened facility was 69 percent, according to the report.
Ten percent of the responding club operators noted that all of their members had returned, the majority of which were clubs in Japan and Europe. Fifty-six percent of responding health clubs noted that fewer than 75 percent of their members had returned.
“The data leads us to believe that most fitness operators should expect membership levels by YE 2020 to range from 50 percent to 80 percent of pre-closure levels, with fewer than 20 percent returning to full pre-closure levels,” the report stated.
For more insights from the report, download it here.