New Hampshire based Planet Fitness (NYSE: PLNT) reached across the world to shake hands with Australia's Bravo Fit Holdings, in a franchise agreement to open a minimum of 35 Planet Fitness locations in the Land Down Under. While this agreement is newsworthy on its own, it also demonstrates a budding international expansion opportunity for the company.
Taking Planet Fitness to Australia was a little complicated. The name was already trademarked in Australia, with several gyms using it. This franchise agreement includes buying the Planet Fitness name, taking gyms operating under that name and converting them to actual Planet Fitness locations, and opening a minimum of 35 new locations over the next few years.
Australia is a relatively small country, with a population of around 25 million people. That's less than the population of Texas, where Planet Fitness has over 119 franchised locations. But an interesting feature of Australia is that 90% of the population lives in urban areas -- ideal for a gym location. Considering each Planet Fitness location averages less than 8,000 members, it's feasible for the company to have hundreds of locations in Aussie country long term.