Anytime Fitness France Triples Footprint With Acquisition

Anytime Fitness's master franchisee in France has acquired Interval Sport Fitness Group and will convert ten clubs to the Anytime Fitness brand. The deal triples Anytime France's footprint from three clubs to 13, adding 23 employees and roughly 14,000 members overnight. It's the kind of consolidation move franchisors increasingly favor over slow, unit-by-unit buildout in unfamiliar markets.

A Faster Path Than Ground-Up Development

Anytime France is owned by Benoit Hanssen and Matt Burgess, who also run Anytime Fitness clubs in Italy. Instead of opening new locations from scratch, they bought an existing operator with built infrastructure, staff and a paying member base already in place. For a franchisor eyeing rapid international scale, buying a competitor's book of business compresses years of lease negotiations and buildout into a single transaction.

Purpose Brands Bets on Local Operators

Purpose Brands, which owns Anytime Fitness alongside Orangetheory and The Bar Method, says the France deal reflects its broader international strategy: find an experienced local operator and let them drive market-specific growth rather than running expansion centrally. Anytime Fitness just crossed 6,000 locations worldwide and plans roughly 500 new clubs in 2026, a pace that depends on multi-unit operators willing to acquire, not just build.

What It Signals for Franchisees

For prospective multi-unit operators, the deal is a reminder that acquisition financing and M&A fluency are becoming as important to franchise growth as site selection. Brands courting international expansion increasingly favor partners who can execute a buyout, absorb staff and retain members without disrupting service, a different skill set than the standard development-agreement playbook.