CityFitness will spend up to $100 million over five years opening up to 50 new gyms and creating up to 1,000 jobs. That would take the network beyond 100 locations nationwide. In a year when much of retail has been talking about survival, this is a company talking about scale.
The chain is not starting small. It already has more than 260,000 members across 66 branches and employs 1,200 staff and contractors. Confirmed sites for 2026/27 include Newmarket, Papamoa, Courtenay Place and Pukekohe, and each new club is expected to employ about 20 staff.
The squeeze is real, just not at the squat rack
None of this means the consumer economy has bounced back. Stats NZ’s June quarter figures showed retail sales volumes fell 0.5 percent, undoing part of the March quarter’s gain. Across the 2025 financial year, the Annual Enterprise Survey recorded nationwide operating surplus down 5.9 percent to $101 billion, with construction revenue down 7.9 percent.
That is the backdrop that makes the gym story interesting. Households are clearly choosing where to cut, and fitness keeps landing on the protected list.
Membership has become a habit, not a treat
The CityFitness bet follows several years of steady gains. In June, BusinessDesk reported that the budget chain had overtaken Les Mills as the country’s largest gym operator by revenue, and that just under a million adults, about 26 percent of the population, now pay for a gym. That was up from 22 percent a year earlier and 21 percent the year before.
In March 2026, Exercise New Zealand estimated 2.67 million adults were exercising, and said at the time that “exercise is not a luxury, it’s an essential part of living well.” Industry lobbies always say that, but the membership numbers back it up.
The pipeline of future members looks strong too. Exercise New Zealand chief executive Richard Beddie points to teenagers: “When we look at the number for teenagers, so 16- and 17-year-olds, it’s over 30%, and a further 14% want to join.” A customer who builds a training routine at 17 is a customer for decades.
The resilience is not confined to the budget end. Dominique Francis, founder of Auckland luxury wellness studio Redroom, opened in September 2024 at the height of the cost-of-living crunch and told BusinessDesk in July: “We opened right in the middle of some of the hardest economic times for people, and we haven’t actually seen the effects of that.” Budget and boutique are both winning, which suggests this is about the category, not one clever pricing model.
There is still plenty of runway
CityFitness’s own justification is simple. Only 21 percent of urban adult New Zealanders are fitness centre members, compared with 34 percent in Sweden. Closing even half that gap would mean hundreds of thousands of new members.
The company is also segmenting harder, growing its premium Simplicity Fitness brand and opening its first women-only gym this spring. Chief operating officer Doug Hatten says the chain will target population centres of 30,000 to 40,000 people with limited existing options, calling it a long-term commitment to the health of New Zealanders. That is disciplined site selection, not a land grab: go where competitors are thin and demand is underserved.
The money flows well beyond the gym floor
For the wider business community, up to 50 new clubs means up to 50 new commercial leases, many in mid-sized towns where landlords would welcome a large, long-term anchor tenant. It means fit-out and construction contracts at a time when builders badly need the work, plus orders for equipment suppliers, flooring, HVAC and signage. Around 20 jobs per site adds up quickly in a place like Pukekohe or Papamoa.
The timing looks sensible rather than reckless. Stats NZ’s quarterly business data showed total sales across all industries up 8.9 percent to $214 billion in the year to June, and BusinessNZ’s Economic Conditions Index rose 13 points to 13 in the September quarter. If the broader recovery firms, CityFitness will be opening clubs into rising demand rather than chasing a shrinking market.
Value, not volume, is the real lesson
The takeaway for other consumer businesses is not that spending is booming. It is that New Zealanders still pay for things they see as worth it, part of their routine, and tied to how they want to live. Gyms have built that position over three years of rising membership while other discretionary categories went backwards.
The first test comes with the Newmarket, Courtenay Place, Papamoa and Pukekohe openings. If they fill as quickly as the trend suggests, expect rivals to accelerate their own plans, and expect landlords in mid-sized towns to start returning gym operators’ calls a lot faster.
Sources
- 1News: Gym franchise weighs in with $100m expansion plans (2026-10-06)
- Scoop: CityFitness In $100m Expansion, Entry Into Women-Only Market (2026-10-07)
- Infrastructure News: CityFitness to spend NZD $100 million on gym expansion (2026-10-06)
- Stats NZ: Retail activity falls by 0.5 percent in the June 2026 quarter (2026-08-24)
- Stats NZ: Annual enterprise survey 2025 financial year (provisional) (2026-06-25)
- Stats NZ: Business financial data June 2026 quarter (2026-09-08)
- BusinessDesk: Budget chain muscles in on Les Mills as NZ’s biggest gym earner (2026-06-23)
- BusinessDesk: Luxury gyms are betting wellness beats a downturn (2026-07-17)
- Exercise New Zealand: Media Release 11 March 2026 (2026-03-11)
- BusinessNZ: NZ economy – Spring is here! (2026-09)
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