World Class, the largest chain of wellness clubs in Romania, plans to triple its local network by the end of 2017, to 33 clubs. The company currently operates 11 fitness clubs and has some 26,000 members.

“We currently have 26,000 members, but by the end of this year we plan to open four more clubs and reach 34,000 members,” Mikael Fredholm, CEO and partner of World Class Romania, told Romania-Insider.com.

By the end of 2015, the company plans to reach 20 clubs and 45,000 to 50,000 members, he added. The investment in opening a new club varies from EUR 700,000, in case of turnkey locations, to EUR 1-1.5 million in locations where the company also has to do the set-up. The value of the investment also varies a lot if the club has a pool or not, Fredholm explained. Overall, the investments estimated by the end of 2015 are EUR 7-8 million.

The expansion would also lead to an increase in the company’s turnover, from an estimated EUR 12 million this year to more than EUR 20 million next year. In 2012, the company posted a turnover of EUR 8.2 million and a net profit of EUR 447,000, according to public data from the Finance Ministry.

At the beginning of this year, World Class Romania was acquired by its local managers and Polish investment fund Resource Partners. This marked a change in the company’s strategy, which decided to accelerate its expansion on the local market.

“We are targeting the highly populated areas of Bucharest, such as Titan, Militari, Obor, but also the large cities, such as Cluj, Timisoara, Brasov, Constanta, Iasi,” Fredholm said.

World Class has been present on the Romanian market for over 14 years. It started with luxury clubs in Marriott and then in Radisson Blu hotels and then expanded to malls, residential projects or office buildings. The only clubs outside Bucharest are in Cluj and Timisoara.

Currently, the company has over 400 employees and some 8,000 people come to its clubs every day.

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com