Orangetheory Fitness is entering Italy for the first time. Parent company Purpose Brands confirmed on June 4, 2026 that Italian operator Icon Palestre has secured the rights to open four Orangetheory studios across the greater Rome metro area over the next four years. The signing pushes the heart-rate-based training brand into one of Europe’s largest under-served boutique fitness markets and extends a busy run of international deals that already carried the brand into Japan and the GCC earlier this year.
Rome becomes Orangetheory’s debut city in Italy under a development agreement with Icon Palestre, a local fitness management company run by CEO Felice Orsinetti. Rather than a single pilot, the operator has committed to a four-studio build-out, giving the brand immediate density in the capital region. Premium Italian equipment maker Technogym will supply part of the strength kit, tying the rollout to a homegrown name Italian members already recognise and trust.
The Rome locations will run on a new smaller-footprint configuration with a streamlined equipment package, making them among the first studios of this format anywhere in the Orangetheory system. The compact model lowers the real-estate and fit-out cost of opening in dense, high-rent European cities and is designed to be deployed in other international markets on an as-needed basis.
“Our biggest priority in 2026 is to grow Orangetheory.” — Tom Leverton, CEO, Purpose Brands
Purpose Brands leaders framed the move around the worldwide surge in functional, results-driven workouts, the same demand curve fuelling competition formats such as HYROX. That trend is showing up across markets, from Europe to the fast-growing studios powering fitness racing across Taiwan and Thailand. Orangetheory’s coach-led, data-tracked model is built squarely for members who want measurable outcomes rather than an open gym floor.
For operators across the Gulf and Southeast Asia, the more telling detail is not the country but the format. A purpose-built compact studio cuts the capital and leasing burden that has slowed boutique fitness in high-density Asian and Gulf cities, where prime retail space is scarce and expensive. Pairing that smaller box with a strong local equipment partner is a repeatable playbook, and one Orangetheory has now run in Japan, the GCC and Europe inside a single year. Investors weighing fitness franchise opportunities across Asia or comparing concepts against Club Pilates and other boutique formats should read the Rome deal as a signal that the major studio brands are re-engineering their real-estate model specifically to scale faster in international markets. The brands that localise hardware, footprint and pricing, rather than copy-pasting a U.S. box, are the ones converting interest into signed multi-unit agreements.
Source: Franchising.com — Orangetheory Fitness Announces Expansion into Italy
