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Fitness Ventures, LLC announced on May 19, 2026 that it has acquired 22 clubs from Harman Fitness, a Los Angeles-based Crunch Fitness franchise operator with locations across California and Texas. The deal makes Fitness Ventures the largest franchise operator in the Crunch Fitness system.
With the acquisition, Fitness Ventures now operates 115 clubs across 30 states and is on pace to exceed 130 locations by year-end. All acquired clubs will continue operating under the Crunch Fitness brand, with more than $50 million in upgrades headed to the Southern California and Houston markets.
Fitness Ventures purchased 22 Crunch clubs operated by Harman Fitness, the franchise group built by Curtis and David Harman across Southern California and Houston. Every acquired club keeps the Crunch Fitness brand, and members are set to see facility upgrades over the coming months. The transaction ranks Fitness Ventures among the largest fitness franchise platforms in the United States.
“Ten years ago this month, we signed our first lease,” said Brian Hibbard, CEO of Fitness Ventures.
Founded in 2016 by Brian Hibbard, Fitness Ventures is now the largest Crunch Fitness franchisee in the United States and one of the fastest-growing operators in the high-value, low-price fitness category. The company is backed by Meaningful Partners, a consumer-focused private equity firm that has held the business since August 2024.
Fitness Ventures describes its strategy as building a scaled operating platform rather than a loose group of clubs. That framing matters: a platform applies shared technology, real estate discipline and management depth across every location, an approach that mirrors how large Crunch developers are clustering new builds.
The deal shows how franchise growth is increasingly powered by franchisee-to-franchisee transactions rather than only new-unit construction. By acquiring an established operator, Fitness Ventures adds revenue immediately and gives Harman a structured exit. Crunch itself continues to expand fast, from upgraded clubs on the West Coast to new builds across Texas, and the system now spans more than 550 Crunch gyms worldwide.
Consolidation among large multi-unit operators is reshaping the economics of franchising. Well-capitalized, private equity-backed platforms can buy scale, refinance it and operate it more efficiently than smaller owners, which steadily concentrates system revenue. For investors across Asia and MENA, the Fitness Ventures deal underlines a wider point about how master and multi-unit structures are evolving: the operators winning today treat franchising as a capital discipline, not a single-store business. Brands that build clear pathways for operators to scale, and eventually transition, will attract the most ambitious developers.
