HALO Talks Fast Break: Behind the Numbers-Health Club Multiples and Market Transformations

In today's 𝗛𝗔𝗟𝗢 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸𝘀 𝙁𝙖𝙨𝙩𝘽𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 we're excited to bring you another portion of our panel discussion at the recent Athletech News Innovators Summit held in NYC, July 2025. 

Integrity Square Founder Pete Moore had the pleasure of moderating a panel with Mark Federico (CEO of Crunch Fitness CR Fitness Holdings, LLC) and Terry Blachek (Orangetheory Fitness) for a deep dive into the real-world challenges—and strategies—of scaling fitness franchises.

• M&A Is More Than Just Numbers: At its core, M&A is (also!) about “multiples and add-backs” 😉—understanding valuation drivers and how projecting future growth (and dealing with the inevitable aftershocks) can make or break a deal.
  
  
• The HALO Sector Has Transformed: Once dominated by just a few big players, the space is now segmented with unique opportunities (and risks) for each vertical. Brands like EoS, Vasa, and Fitness Connection may look new, but actually. . . many are evolutions of legacy Gold's clubs.
  
  
• Valuations: Investor sentiment is extremely strong right now, with leading brands commanding impressive multiples (EoS at 13x, Crunch corporate at 18x.) A diverse club portfolio across states also usually means higher valuation and more investor interest.

We encourage everyone to work hard to understand the bigger picture that's literally happening right now in health club M&A—beyond just the financials.💡

Want to learn more? (You should. Otherwise you're playing checkers while the rest of the industry plays chess.) 

Give us 10 hours of your time at the next HALO Academy starting Sept 8, 2025. Register at https://www.thehaloacademy.com now for $495 and earn a $100 gift card from our friends at Promotion Vault. Testimonials at https://www.thehaloacademy.com/testimonials

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Thanks to Promotion Vault and HigherDOSE for sponsoring. For 15% off products sitewide (excluding bundles, kits, and full saunas) use the code GOHALO at https://www.higherdose.com

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
So I wanted to start this off because a friend, Chat Stein, who's
chatgpt, I said beforehand when I came here, you know, let
me figure out, like, what is mergers and acquisitions and what is M and A
really? Okay? So I'd say M and A is really. And we can please
sing along or stayed along like Family Feud. Multiples
and add backs, okay? That's what we're basically doing. We're trying to find the multiple

(00:21):
and the value of a deal, and we're trying to add back expenses
that turn into a higher valuation. All right? We're putting a lot of
myths and assumptions out into the market, which are hockey stick projections,
okay. We're also looking at miscalculations and aftershocks,
some things that we might not have thought of when we're starting a deal. And
what's going to happen? How's that going to affect the process or how's that going

(00:43):
to affect valuation? Okay. Mudslides and avalanches. If you're
selling a business and the business doesn't perform during that period of time,
we're going to get a lower multiple or we might end up with no deal.
Okay? So M and A is also when it closes, as my friend Cypher would
agree. Miracles and applause. Okay, so those are the five things that maybe
M and A really is. What I want to take you through here for a

(01:04):
minute is what the industry used to look like back in the day when
I started in 1999 and Terry was at
Crunch and Federico had his own clubs in Boston. And
when you looked at the industry, you could actually say with a straight face, I'm
just in the health club industry. Okay? It was dominated by Gold's Gym
as a license. LA Fitness was just ramping up with

(01:25):
equity, and they were building locations and boxes there at every
exit part of California. And then you also had
Lifetime at the time, that only had 12 locations, right. If you look
back here, Planet Fitness had three locations, right?
Fast forward to 2024, 2025, and now we've
segmented the market and every one of these segments has their own

(01:47):
valuations, has their own potential opportunities,
risks, capital expenditures, and franchisors and
franchisees. As we look through where the industry kind of
came from, where all these years, I want to invest in eos, I
want to invest in vaasa, I want to invest in Fitness Connection. Okay?
News flash. They're all Gold's Gyms, okay? The sign came

(02:09):
down, somebody paid to put up a new sign, and now EOS just got sold
for only $1.5 billion. Right. Vas is worth
a couple hundred million dollars. Right. One Life got sold for
525 million. So the owners of Gold's Gym
back In the early 2000s were a group. There was a family
office and they wanted people to identify so they could get

(02:31):
territory back. Gold's Gym would be the largest health club chain in the United States
right now if it wasn't for that strategic ownership change.
These are the valuation multiples that have happened in the sector. I'll keep
this up there. I think you get a copy of this afterwards for free along
with a copy of my book. But if you look at the multiples
over time, all right. And look at where things are today

(02:54):
with EOS trading at 13 times, crunch corporate trading at over
18 times. Right. There's a lot of investor sentiment that is
at the highest level there has been. And if you have a
diversity of clubs in a diversity of states, you're going to get a high
valuation.
Sam.