Sep. 24, 2009 (U.S. Equity News) --
It's pretty hard to have anything against fitness. With a population that is largely overweight, and millions of aging baby-boomers, fitness is increasingly seen as something vital to the nation. The continuous growth of the health club and health equipment industries over the past 20 years attests to the size of the demand. There are currently over 30,000 health clubs in the U.S., with nearly 50 million members. And it's not just the young and the beautiful who want to be healthy. A quarter of health club members are over 55, and over 10% of all people in their late 60s and early 70s are currently involved in some form of resistance training.
Generally, the fitness industry tends to hold its own even during bad economic times, though current bleak conditions are indeed causing more of a strain than normal. Many people are still willing to fork out the $50 per month to go to their local health club, as long as it's easy to get to. (Being easy to get to is one of the most important factors for people in choosing a health club.) And there are still a number of corporations that will subsidize health club membership, though belt tightening is now threatening this along with most corporate health care plans.
One of the driving forces behind the fitness industry is, of course, America's continuing cult of youth and glamour. Hollywood images and sports heroes carry as much influence as ever. But the result is sometimes the antithesis of health and fitness, as people, including children, desperately seek shortcuts to their physical goals. One study suggests that perhaps 5% or more of high school students have taken steroids at least once. Even more surprising is that 9th-grade girls are among the worst offenders, at closer to 7%.
Nevertheless, the overall fitness movement is generally seen as a good thing, offering positive alternatives to drugs and unhealthy lifestyles, and it continues to grow. The fitness equipment industry alone is now estimated to have annual sales of over $3 billion, with the health club industry closer to $19 billion.
Below are some of the key publicly traded companies in the fitness industry.
⢠Bally Total Fitness (NYSE: BFT)
⢠Life Time Fitness (NYSE: LTM)
⢠Town Sports International (NASDAQ: CLUB)
⢠Cybex (NASDAQ: CYBI)
⢠Nautilus Group (NYSE: NLS)
But even though large companies may dominate, fitness is one industry where even relatively small companies can compete if they come up with a unique product and can put together an aggressive marketing effort to get the message out. An excellent example of this is Muscle Flex, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: MFLI) out of Beverly Hills.
