Element Gyms in Czechia: plan for 80 staff-free gyms in two years

The Portuguese chain Element Gyms has opened almost twenty gyms in Czechia in two years and attracted more than 24,000 active members. That is only the warm-up: Bernardo Rocha Novo, CEO of the parent company SC Fitness, part of the Sonae group, has announced plans to bring the number of Czech branches to 80 within two years.

Rocha Novo has run fitness businesses for fourteen years. He began his career at Procter & Gamble and, before joining Sonae, headed marketing at the football club FC Porto. He works out several times a week himself, and his office, in his own words, is right in the gym.

The numbers. SC Fitness's turnover last year reached two billion crowns, while Czech Element Gyms brought in only about 60 million. In two years the company expects to raise its Czech revenue to almost a billion crowns. In Portugal itself, SC Fitness has around ninety gyms.

The model. The gyms operate on a self-service basis, and instead of a front-desk employee, a mobile app greets members. This approach appeals to a young audience and keeps prices low: the cheapest membership starts at 99 crowns a week. According to Rocha Novo, the main barriers that keep people from going to the gym are location and price. That is why the bet is on a dense network and high volume rather than on a high average bill.

Why Czechia. For its first step abroad, the company chose between Czechia, Hungary and Romania. Czechia won, but the company started not in Prague but in Moravia, where competition is milder: the first gyms opened in Olomouc, Ostrava and Brno. Now, with experience gained, the company is launching a nationwide expansion and entering Prague.

What surprised the market. Czechs exercise noticeably more often than the Portuguese: a client in Portugal comes to the gym about twice a week, a Czech three times. The plans therefore had to be adjusted, and the company is now looking for larger premises so that nobody feels cramped.

How locations are chosen. The priority for now is cities with a population of more than 50,000; smaller ones will come later. The company considers how many people live within a ten- to fifteen-minute walk or a five-minute drive, how close public transport is, and whether there are shopping centers and supermarkets nearby. In big cities, expansion is built into the plan from the start: when entering Prague, Rocha Novo is working out how to fit 25 gyms there.

Acquisitions. In Portugal, SC Fitness grows in three ways: it builds its own clubs, buys successful local gyms and absorbs small chains. In Czechia there are so far only new branches, but the company has already studied local competitors. “I won't say acquisitions will play a key role, but we're familiar with this model, and it could happen in Czechia too,” the executive says. Czechia will not be the last country in the Portuguese company's plans abroad.

By the Around Prague newsroom