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Fitness Ventures has become the largest franchisee in the Crunch Fitness system, acquiring 22 gyms in Texas and Southern California from Harman Fitness in a deal that closed in May 2026. The transaction lifts the private-equity-backed operator to 115 locations across 30 states and pushes it into two of the largest fitness markets in the United States — Houston and the Los Angeles metro area.
The acquisition transfers 22 Crunch Fitness clubs spread across the Houston and Southern California markets, vaulting Fitness Ventures past every other operator in the Crunch network by unit count. Founded in 2016, the company built its early footprint in mid-sized and tertiary markets — including college campuses, where Crunch’s low-priced membership model drew student members. Moving into two dense metros marks a clear strategic shift for a brand that made its name outside the major cities, a pattern echoed by other fast-scaling Crunch franchisees.
Fitness Ventures has signaled plans to invest roughly $50 million renovating about half of the 22 acquired clubs to Crunch’s flagship 3.0 format — approximately 40,000-square-foot clubs featuring yoga and cycling studios, expanded strength equipment and upgraded locker rooms. Sites that do not meet the size threshold will be relocated or upgraded under a scaled format. The operator is also in talks with Crunch corporate about adding Pilates programming to select locations, tracking the surging consumer demand for that modality.
Private equity firm Meaningful Partners acquired Fitness Ventures in August 2024 and has bankrolled an aggressive growth pace since. The company has more than doubled its unit count in roughly 14 months and now targets 130 total units by the end of 2026, adding about 20 locations a year.
The deal is the latest marker of accelerating consolidation in the franchised fitness sector, where institutional buyers are paying premiums to scale within established brands. Crunch Fitness itself was acquired by private equity in 2024, and its new ownership has supported rapid franchisee expansion since. The Fitness Ventures transaction fits a broader pattern of large operators rolling up single-market franchisees into multi-state platforms — a dynamic explored further in our look at how M&A is reshaping fitness franchising.
“The fitness industry is on fire.” — Brian Hibbard, CEO, Fitness Ventures
For master franchisees and family offices in Asia and the MENA region, the Fitness Ventures playbook is instructive: disciplined, capital-backed roll-ups of an established value brand can outpace organic unit growth while spreading overhead across a larger base. The willingness to spend $50 million upgrading acquired clubs underscores that in mature fitness markets, the value increasingly sits in operational quality and format upgrades rather than raw unit count — a lesson directly relevant to operators weighing whether to build versus buy in competitive franchise categories. As private equity continues to underwrite consolidation, single-unit and small multi-unit franchisees in emerging markets may find that scale, not novelty, becomes the deciding factor in long-term returns.
Source: L’Express Franchise — Fitness Ventures Becomes the Largest Crunch Franchisee After Acquiring 22 Gyms
