Feb. 10, 2021
Marketdata is now updating its largest, best-selling biennial report: “The U.S. Weight Loss & Diet Control Market”, due to be released in 3-4 weeks. Research so far has uncovered a few things about some of the market segments and how they fared in 2020 during the pandemic. One part of the weight loss market we looked at is the Health Clubs Industry.
Due to closures of non-essential businesses, many gyms and health clubs were closed in 2020. 2020 was a perfect storm. Here are a few takeaways:
- Growth was strong through 2019, when the nation’s 41,370 health clubs racked up record sales of $35 billion
- IHRSA (Intl. Health & Racquet Club Association) personnel reported that 17% of the industry’s clubs had closed permanently as of Dec. 2020. That translates to 34,300 clubs still in business.
- According to a ClubIntel study, U.S. fitness centers still in business are projecting a 37% decline in revenue this year. That would put revenues at $22 billion.
- Clubs have conformed to strict government regulations in terms of density, social distancing, cleaning protocols, contact tracing, air filtration systems, and health standards. Compliance with these mandates has caused many clubs, especially single-activity studios to close because their economic model was no longer feasible.
Sales of home exercise equipment such as Peloton bikes, Tonal and Mirror, fitness gear, gadgets and apparel have skyrocketed during the pandemic as homebound consumers have scrambled to build home gyms, loaded up on sneakers and downloaded fitness apps by the millions.
According to data from Sensor Tower, from January through November of 2020, approximately 2.5 billion health and fitness apps were downloaded worldwide — a 47 percent jump from the same period in 2019.
As a result, it remains to be seen how much health clubs will recover post-pandemic. Will they come back to clubs with group workout classes and the nation’s 373,000+ personal trainers, seeking the social connections they had before, or will some just continue to work out at home?
These are just a few of the findings that will be covered in depth with Marketdata’s new edition of “The U.S. Weight Loss & Diet Control Market“.
Watch for more tidbits over the coming weeks. John LaRosa, the nation’s leading independent weight loss market business analyst for 32 years, is available for interviews, teleconferences, and consulting. Marketdata Phone: 813-971-8080