STRONG Pilates, the Australian-founded boutique fitness brand built around its Rowformer and Bikeformer equipment, has signed a master franchise agreement with Xtreme Brands, Poland’s largest wellness franchise operator, handing the group development rights across Central and Eastern Europe. Announced from Melbourne on 3 August 2026, the agreement opens Poland and the Czech Republic first and takes STRONG’s footprint to 16 countries.
What separates this deal from a standard territory sale is the counterparty. Xtreme Brands is not a first-time franchisee assembling a team from scratch — its Xtreme Fitness Gyms network already runs 189 operational clubs and is opening roughly three new clubs per week. STRONG becomes the first external brand admitted to that portfolio.
Xtreme Brands provides franchisees a turnkey package covering property sourcing, design and dedicated sales teams — the operating infrastructure that usually takes a master franchisee three to five years and considerable capital to build. The group is targeting 750 operating locations across Central and Eastern Europe by 2030, a share of which will be STRONG Pilates studios, backed by investment from bValue Fund.
Co-founded in 2019 by Michael Ramsey and Mark Armstrong, STRONG Pilates merges reformer Pilates with cardio and strength work through proprietary equipment — a Reformer fitted with either a rower or a bike. The format is pitched at longevity training: low impact, high intensity, full body.
For investors in this region, the more interesting detail is where STRONG already trades. Its existing markets include Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and South Korea, alongside Dubai and Bahrain — meaning the brand has already proven it can transplant a specialised, equipment-heavy studio format into Asia Pacific and Gulf real estate and labour conditions. Europe is an extension of a model already tested in the markets that matter to ASEAN and MENA operators.
Michael Ramsey framed the choice of partner in terms of franchising credentials rather than market size.
“Xtreme Brands is a leader in the wellness space with strong franchising credibility”
James Cotton, chief executive of Xtreme Fitness Gyms, described STRONG as a proven international concept answering demand for training that combines Pilates, strength and cardio — and pointed to his group’s existing capability in franchise development, site selection and club operations as the reason it can scale the brand quickly. Xtreme Brands is owned by Łukasz Dojka, Łukasz Nowakowski and bValue Fund.
Three things stand out. First, the reformer-led boutique category is still absorbing capital at a point in the cycle when generic big-box gyms are not — the same dynamic driving Pilates studio growth across the Gulf and the expansion of brands such as Club Pilates and Pure Barre into Asia and the Middle East.
Second, the structure is instructive. STRONG did not award Poland to a fitness enthusiast with capital; it awarded a multi-country territory to an operator with an existing 189-club platform, in-house property and sales teams, and private equity backing. That is increasingly the bar for country-level franchise rights in any category with equipment-heavy fit-outs. Franchisors are trading exclusivity for demonstrated build capacity, not for the largest cheque.
Third, for operators in ASEAN and the GCC weighing a boutique fitness portfolio, STRONG’s existing presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Dubai and Bahrain means most of the region’s prime territories are already spoken for. The window for securing a first-mover position in this format is narrowing — a pattern visible elsewhere in the sector, including Crunch Fitness‘s recent push into South Asia. Investors who want reformer exposure will increasingly be buying into second-tier territories or competing formats rather than the headline markets.
