Club Pilates: an Excellent Franchise With 4 Years Payback (2023)

One of the fastest growing fitness franchises, Club Pilates started in 2012 and has over 800 gyms today. Beyond the hype for this premium pilates fitness brand, it’s also very popular among franchisees for a simple reason: Club Pilates is one of the most profitable fitness franchise.

Indeed, although you would need to invest (only) $287,000 to open a new location, a Club Pilates gym makes on average $545,000 in revenue per year.

In this article we have analysed the latest Franchise Disclosure Document to answer questions like: how much a Club Pilates really costs and how much profits you can realistically make with this business. Let’s dive in!

Key stats

Franchise fee	$60,000
Royalty fee	7.0%
Marketing fee	2.0%
Investment (mid-point)	$287,000
Average sales	$545,000
Sales to investment ratio	0.8x
Payback period*	3-4 years
Minimum net worth	$500,000
Minimum liquid capital	$100,000

What is Club Pilates?

Club Pilates is an American chain of fitness boutique studios based in Irvine, California.

Founded in 2007 by Allison Beardsley, the franchise offers a 500-hour online and in-studio training program for its instructors that covers human anatomy, biomechanics, physiology, and applied kinesiology.

Club Pilates began selling franchises in 2012 and now has more than 800 gyms in the US and globally and is known as the largest Pilates brand.

Club Pilates franchises pros and cons

Pros

• Real estate and site selection: The brand offers its franchisees real estate assistance in site selection to identify a viable gym location in terms of high traffic. It also helps them in the design and construction of an ideal fitness club, as well as equipment selection and lease negotiations.
• Quality training: Club Pilates offers its franchisees a detailed on-the-job and classroom training curriculum. It offers its franchisees an extensive 3-day initial training on operations, interactive sales, and retail training, as well as grand opening events.
• Marketing strategy: The franchisor has a marketing and public relations strategy in place to assist franchisees in establishing and increasing website traffic and memberships. Franchisees are provided with personalized and targeted promotional resources and tools to help them market their studios to national and international markets.
• Recruitment: The brand helps its franchisees recruit the most qualified instructors, general managers, and sales teams to drive sales and stand out from the competition.
• Exclusive territory protection. The franchisor grants its franchisees the right to operate their fitness facility in a designated area defined in the franchise agreement. It does not, establish other franchises or operate competitive units in the agreed-upon area.
• Third-party financing: The brand has relationships with third-party partners to provide franchisees with financing for the franchise fee, startup costs, equipment, inventory, and payroll.
• Flexible formats: The brand offers its franchisees flexible formats and designs that fit into their local area requirements and maximize their earning and scalability potential.

Cons

• No absentee ownership: The franchise does not present a passive business opportunity. Franchisees must be involved in the day-to-day operations of their studios.
• Not a home-based business: The franchise cannot be operated from home or a vehicle. Franchisees must operate from a fixed office space, retail facility, or warehouse.
• Not a part-time business: The franchise does not offer a part-time or side business opportunity.

How much does a Club Pilates franchise cost?

You would have to invest, on average, $287,000 to open a new Club Pilates fitness studio, which is typically 1,500 sq. ft. in size.

Note that this is the investment required to open a traditional franchised studio. Indeed, the vast majority of fitness studios are traditional studios franchises.

To clarify, there are 2 main kinds of formats of fitness studio you can choose: the Traditional franchised and non-traditional offering depending on whether the gym is located in a freestanding building or another (non traditional), often smaller location.

Club Pilates startup costs

Here’s the full breakdown of costs per studio format:

Traditional franchised studio

Type of cost	Amount
Initial franchise fee	$60,000
Net leasehold improvements	$28,500-$140,500
Furniture, fixtures and related supplies	$18,500-$19,500
Signage	$10,000-$21,000
Additional Funds 3 Months	$10,000-$40,000
Other	$58,800-$107,200
Total	$185,800-$388,200

Non traditional franchised studio

Type of cost	Amount
Initial franchise fee	$0-$60,000
Leasehold improvements	$50,000-$55,000
Furniture, fixtures and related supplies	$15,000-$20,000
Signage	$7,000-$10,000
Additional Funds 3 Months	$10,000-$25,000
Other	$52,025-$85,173
Total	$134,025-$255,173

How much revenues does a Club Pilates gym make?

On average, a Club Pilates franchise makes $544,703 in sales per year.

This is the average turnover per traditional franchised studio for 621 of the 667 franchised studios that were open for all of 2021. Here’s the breakdown month by month for all of 2021:

What’s great about Club Pilates is that it has by far the highest revenue per square foot of all fitness franchises. Indeed, a Club Pilates studio generates on average $363 per year per square foot, much more than the fitness franchise industry at $80 as per our intelligence.

How profitable is a Club Pilates franchise?

We estimate that a Club Pilates gym makes about $170,000 in profits per year. This corresponds to a ~30% EBITDA margin.

Yet, note that Club Pilates does not provide any detailed profit-and-loss in its Franchise Disclosure Document. Instead, we have to estimate profits by using available information such as rent costs and royalty fees and make conjectures for staff, marketing and other costs.

Profit and loss	Amount	% revenue	Notes
Revenue	$544,703	100%
COGS	$(16,341)	3%	industry average
Staff	$(152,517)	28%	industry average
Rent	$(76,500)	14%	As per FDD
Royalty fee	$(49,023)	9%	As per FDD
Marketing	$(27,235)	5%	industry average
Other expenses	$(54,470)	10%	industry average
EBITDA	$168,616	31%

Is a Club Pilates franchise a good investment?

In order to answer that question, we must compare profits to the initial investment cost of $287,000 (on average). This is where it gets very interesting for Club Pilates: it has the lowest payback period we found for fitness franchises.

Indeed, we found Club Pilates has a payback of 3.5 years on average, which is excellent for a fitness brand. For comparison, the average fitness franchise has a payback period of 8 to 9 years.

Note that we assumed a 15% net profit margin and not EBITDA to estimate this number (net profit margin being the profit after all expenses have been paid, including D&A, corporate taxes, debt interest, etc.).

How does it compare vs. other Fitness franchises?

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