Anytime Fitness UK aims to double women gym owners in five years

Currently just 10 per cent of its club owners are women, the franchise aims to change that

Anytime Fitness, which currently has over 185 independently owned clubs in the UK and Ireland, has outlined plans to double the 10 per cent of female franchisees it now has. With the franchise sector on average seeing 25 per cent female ownership, the fitness company knows things have to change.

This has begun with the business’ own board of directors. Within the past year, Sue Moore and Sarah Evans have joined as director of franchising and director of finance, respectively.

As director of franchising, Sue Moore will play a big part in this initiative. She said: “There’s no disguising that the gym industry has the perception of being male-dominated and this is something we’re passionate about changing. We have some fantastic women in our network who are running highly successful clubs but we want this number to significantly increase. While many women are creating small businesses or self-employment in the fitness industry, we see fewer women coming forward to launch bigger ventures, this could be due to a more cautious approach around size and scale. Anytime Fitness would like to challenge perceptions and encourage women to consider growing a more substantial local business with the support of an experienced franchise network, talented support office team and established brand.”

When not working, Sue regular volunteers at not-for-profit EWIF (Encouraging Women Into Franchising) and is a regular mentor at the 70,000 strong group, Northern Power Women. Her 30-plus years of franchise experience has been invaluable in mentoring over 100 men and women.

Anytime Fitness will be creating bespoke content offerings for female franchisees and highlighting women who have succeeded with their model at both ownership and management level. Sue stressed again why there should be no reason for this gender disparity.

She said: “Over half of UK gym members are women and there’s no reason why this shouldn’t be reflected at an ownership level too. This demonstrates that a significant number of women have a strong personal interest in fitness which is arguably the most important aspect of owning a health club.”