Franchise operator Club Pilates has shown that there is growing confidence in the US fitness and wellness sector, by revealing details of an expansion push which will see 21 new locations opening in June alone.
While some of the new studio openings had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of the new locations had been in the company's longer-term studio pipeline.
According to Club Pilates, the franchise owners of the new locations had been "eagerly pushing forward" for an opening date – in order to take advantage of the increased interest in boutique fitness.
Club Pilates president, Shaun Grove, added that, as a method of exercise, pilates was perfectly placed for adopting the post-lockdown measures – such as social distancing – without huge alterations to operations.
"As our communities come out of stay-at-home orders, we are seeing an increase in interest in our studios, which have always had built-in physical distancing with more than six-feet between each personal workout station for class participants," Grove said.
"These new studios will help us service the demand for Pilates which continues to grow across the country and around the world."
The opening of the 21 new studios takes the number of Studio Pilates sites to 615. The company now has a presence in the US, Canada, Japan and South Korea.
Club Pilates is owned by Xponential Fitness, which acquired the brand in 2015.
Other brands in the Xponential portfolio include premium indoor cycling franchise CycleBar; group stretching chain StretchLab; indoor rowing brand Row House; dance-based cardio studio operator AKT; yoga franchise YogaSix; ballet barre chain Pure Barre and STRIDE, a treadmill-based cardio and strength studio operator.
On 15 June, Xponential launched its highly-anticipated platform called GO, which brings live and on-demand content from across its boutique verticals.
GO gives users access to more than 1,700 pieces of content from the eight Xponential brands, as well as a handful of third-party content from partners like Aaptiv and HyperIce for under US$30 a month.
"After almost a year of development and production at the newly established X-Studio in Irvine, we are excited to officially roll out premium digital offerings across all of our brands" said Garrett Marshall of Xponential Fitness.
"The market is saturated with digital fitness options that provide great convenience.
"However we are confident GO will stand out from the crowd by being the first to match that convenience – and affordability – with an experience and the proven results that have been acquired over 19 years of these brands' existence and 1,500 locations."
