Photo: Orangetheory Fitness.

Orangetheory Fitness doubled its European size last year and it aims to repeat the feat this year to end up with more than twenty studios in this regional market.

This is just a fraction of the Orangetheory Fitness business, which reached its target of generating $1 billion in sales through its franchise partners in 2018 – just eight years after the launch of this interval training concept using water rowers, treadmills, TRX suspension units and heart-rate monitoring.

Carlos Vidal, in charge of international development at Orangetheory Fitness, said that 261 studios were opened in 2018, expanding the franchise to 1,124 clubs at the end of the year. The plan is to add 270 studios around international markets this year. Beyond Europe, they include markets in Latin America and Asia, such as Singapore, Japan and China.

The European expansion so far has been focusing on the U.K., Spain and Germany. The latest targeted country in this regional market is Poland, where Maciej Turowski opened a franchise in the Mokotów district of Warsaw, with a target to add three in the Polish capital this year. “The main goal is to extend our base in these countries as we have just started and there is huge potential,” Vidal explained.

Read the full story in FNE#74.