A year into her tenure as CEO, Colleen Keating and the leadership team at Planet Fitness have charted the next chapter for the largest gym brand in the United States.
It includes new floorplans for clubs and reestablishing partnerships with franchisees to reduce their capital costs.
“Visiting well over 125 gyms this past year and talking with our club team members, franchisees and seeing how our members use our clubs really brought the business to life for us and helped shape our four strategic imperatives,” Keating said.
Keating said Planet Fitness’ missions are: redefining its brand strategy and communicating it through its marketing; enhancing its member experience; refining its product and optimizing its format; and accelerating new club growth.
She said some operators are already testing new floorplan configurations, which feature more strength equipment and expanded spaces for functional training. She said the reconfigured design reduces the size of reception areas.
“More than 80 percent of our signups today are either online or through our apps and, because of that, we don’t need as big a lobby for signups in our clubs and we don’t need as big a front desk area,” Keating said. “Shrinking the lobby space reduces the build costs and gives more floor space for members to drop a mat for their workouts.”
Keating said the decision to modernize its locations was prompted by the workout trends of its two youngest member segments.
“Gen Zers [age 13 to 28] are our fastest-growing membership segment, while millennials [age 29 to 44] still make up the largest proportion of our membership. But in Q1 we also increased our penetration in Gen Xers [age 45 to 60] and baby boomers [age 61 to 70], which demonstrates the strength of our brand across all age populations,” she said.
Planet Fitness is the largest gym chain in the world by member count and system sales with more than 20 million members at its 2,741 locations in 50 states and seven countries. It finished last year with $4.8 billion in systemwide sales, a $300 million increase year over year.
Anytime Fitness is the largest fitness club in terms of locations with more than 5,200 gyms in 50 countries in seven continents, but lags behind Planet Fitness with 5 million members. Other major players in the low-price, high-value gym group include LA Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness, Gold’s Gym and Crunch Fitness.
Keating said Planet Fitness added 900,000 members in the first quarter of 2025. The franchise has seen a significant increase in members signing up for its top-level PF Black Card memberships after raising its base level monthly fees from $10 to $15 last year. She said the company expects to open 160 to 170 units this year and is confident it will be able to help franchisees find quality spaces to lease.
She also insisted her company is not worried about other gym franchises and said there’s plenty of room for everyone to grow in the health and fitness space. But she acknowledged there is one hurdle Planet Fitness faces.
“I think our biggest competitor is the fear of walking in the front door,” Keating said, citing statistics that show 73 percent of the U.S. population doesn’t belong to a gym despite research proving the country is more fitness-minded than ever before.
Keating took the helm of Planet Fitness last June after its board ousted longtime CEO Chris Rondeau in September 2023. Prior to joining Planet Fitness, Keating was CEO of FirstKey Homes, a large single-family rental home property management company.
“You can’t open up a news feed today without reading something about the importance of movement in both physical health longevity and mental health as well,” she said.
Keating sounded confident that Planet Fitness will continue to grow and modernize its products and offerings to meet members’ evolving needs. She said the company’s new “We’re all strong on this planet” marketing campaign is already improving the brand’s perceived value with members. Q1 research found that the majority of surveyed consumers who had seen its new ads believe the gyms “have the equipment for building strength” and that Planet Fitness is “a gym they can grow with.”
“We added 19 clubs in the first quarter but we’re not talking about our second quarter results just yet,” said Keating, whose team is scheduled to provide a complete Q2 report at its next earnings call later this summer.
Earlier this year, Planet Fitness announced several leadership changes. Bill Bode, who was division president of the U.S. franchise, transitioned into a newly created chief operating officer role and is overseeing franchise and corporate club operations.