Fitness club owner Basic-Fit suffered a loss of more than 125 million euros due to forced closures during the lockdowns last year. Many fitness clubs had to close temporarily in the spring and in the second half of the year the Dutch company’s branches in many countries could not open again for a long time.
By the end of the year, 851 of the 905 fitness clubs were closed, says CEO René Moos. According to him, 2020 turned out to be the toughest year in the history of Basic-Fit and the fitness industry in a broad sense. Spain was the only country where Basic-Fit did not have to close branches during the new virus wave in the autumn.
The company said it had started strong in 2020. Even before the coronavirus outbreak, a record of new clubs was opened. “This lasted until mid-March,” said Moos. After the closures in the spring, re-openings in the summer followed. Then a lot of people came to play sports, until branches had to close again.
Overall, annual turnover fell by almost 27 percent to 377 million euros. Where the company wrote red figures, an annual profit of 11 million euros was recorded a year earlier. The fact that the results were not even worse is due, among other things, to the coronavirus state aid schemes that the company was able to use.
However, Basic-Fit continues to look ahead positively. The outlook may even have improved, thinks Moos. He foresees that as soon as the pandemic is over, many people will pay more attention to their health and fitness in general. As a result, more people might want to subscribe to a fitness club.
