Gold Gym fitness chain acquired by Cult.fit all across India

Cult.fit, a health and fitness platform, has announced the purchase of a controlling stake in the Gold Gym fitness centre chain in India, as part of its strategy to strengthen its position in the rapidly developing fitness industry. The platform announced that it has acquired a majority investment in F2 Fun & Fitness India Pvt Ltd, making it Gold's Gym's master franchise partner in India. According to an official handout, Cult.fit's investment will be critical in reaffirming the company's strong commitment to establishing India's greatest fitness and wellness ecosystem.

Cult.fit intends to expand its business nationally, including into non-metro cities and villages, as well as including house brands such as Gold's Gym into its network, in order to accelerate their growth in the future years.

Gold's Gym, the second largest competitor in the fitness business, is a hugely successful fitness chain with 140+ locations in 90+ cities, similar to Cult.fit. It also has a track record of success in metros, Tier 2 and 3 areas, and several long-term franchise relationships. Cult.fit will invest in increasing the revenue of existing Gold's Gym centres through top-of-the-line marketing efforts, as well as assisting centre expansion via franchisees in the coming years, as part of this strategic relationship. Cult.fit will also provide its industry-leading centre-tech suite and customer app to all Gold's Gym locations.

Cult.fit will use this agreement to expand the Gold's Gym brand in major markets like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal, and Bhutan. According to an official release, this investment will also assist augment cult's single access card – cultpass – making access to top fitness services even easier and more cheap.

"Partnering with Gold's Gym, we will be able to strengthen our network further and offer the best of everything in fitness in one place. Gold's Gym's significant experience and sizeable footprint via multiple franchise partnerships paired with our deep-tech expertise and process innovation creates a winning formula for our customers and potential franchise partners. Together, we aim to build immense value into the fitness ecosystem generating top-notch tech advancement, great business opportunities, and better returns for our partners in the long run," Naresh Krishnaswamy, Growth and Marketing Head, Cult.fit, said.

Cult.fit will use this agreement to expand the Gold's Gym brand in major markets like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal, and Bhutan. According to an official release, this investment will also assist augment cult's single access card – cultpass – making access to top fitness services even easier and more cheap.

"Over the last 19 years, we have been privileged to work with the best partners in the fitness industry to successfully build the Gold's Gym brand in India. With this partnership, we can now leverage Cult.fit's strong technology, operations and demand generation capabilities to further empower and enable our high-quality supply to scale. We see this partnership as a great win-win for our passionate franchise partners, enabling faster recovery out of the pandemic and being their partner in growth for the long run. This also allows us to give our loyal customers access to the best of fitness services across the country," Kakkar added.