Basic-Fit has reaffirmed its guidance that it should open about 100 clubs this year, but the Dutch group has spelled out a wider target to reach five million people by 2025, with more clubs as well as other fitness products.

“This is a big number but we are ambitious, and we want to have a significant positive impact on the fitness and wellbeing of people in Europe,” said René Moos, the group’s chief executive, in a conference call on Tuesday. The target assumes a combination of club members and virtual customers, since Basic-Fit has started selling subscriptions based on its Pro Coach app alone.

This comes after Basic-Fit’s sales jumped by 26% to €326 million last year. It added 102 clubs added in 2017, most of them in France, to end the year with 521 gyms and 1.52 members. That was a rise of 26%, meaning that Basic-Fit added 313,000 members last year.

But at the same time, sales of Basic-Fit’s mature clubs increased by 1.3% to €135 million, as their membership remained stable and they raised sales of membership add-ons and ancillary products.

France accounted for about 70% of the new club members and the 24% increase in gym numbers mostly came from that country. Basic-Fit opened 73 gyms in France to end the year with 160. That was a few less than in Belgium, but Moos said this week that France has since surpassed Belgium in the Basic-Fit club charts.

Read the full story in FNE#51.