Young Users Help Fuel Planet Fitness Growth

Planet Fitness saw a membership boom at its fitness centers during the pandemic, helped along by teens and pre-teens signing up for their first gym memberships.

As CNBC reported Thursday (Feb. 24), the company’s newly-released fourth-quarter results show that people born between 1997 and 2012 — Generation Z — were the fastest growing demographic group for Planet Fitness memberships last year.

“This past September, when school sports were in play and recreation centers were back open, that didn’t drop off,” CEO Chris Rondeau told the network.

He added that Gen Z puts added emphasis on staying active and preserving their mental health. “They continue to join, quite a bit above pre-Covid levels.”

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Planet Fitness charges $10 for monthly memberships, but Rondeau says about 62.5% of members have upgraded to Black Card, $22.99 a month option that lets customers access any Planet Fitness location as well as perks such as tanning beds and guest passes. The CEO said penetration of Black Card members has grown as the company opens more locations.

At the end of last month, Planet Fitness counted 15.6 million members, which it the company says is higher than its pre-pandemic peak.

Planet Fitness first began to notice the trend of sign-ups by young members last year. Rondeau said then that this “is notable, as only half of the generation is even old enough to join.”

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Gyms, like many other businesses, suffered in the early days of the pandemic, but Planet Fitness and other sports-related operations began to see a rebound last year, with Planet Fitness adding 600,000 new members in the first quarter of 2021.

“We are very encouraged by the clear and steady improvement in overall sentiment we witnessed in America during the first quarter and the corresponding impact it had on our business,” Rondeau said last year.

“We believe that the positive headline news on COVID-19 vaccine availability drove a seasonality shift in our membership trends as March membership growth exceeded March 2019, reinforcing our belief that people are eager to get back into our gyms.”