Orangetheory Fitness Canada, a global leader in fitness, has opened its 105th Canadian location and is gearing up for further expansion in Quebec and Ontario.
Following recent openings in Quebec City, Orangetheory has set its sights on Sherbrooke, where a new location is slated to open in early 2025. With robust demand for its unique, science-backed approach to fitness, the brand is aiming to launch up to a dozen new studios across Canada next year.
“Beauport (in Quebec City) shines because of its unique blend of heritage, beauty and recreational activities and we couldn’t be more excited to join a vibrant community that appreciates personalized experiences, authentic connections, and holistic health,” said Orangetheory Fitness Beauport Franchisee, Marie-Pier Rousseau. “These values are intrinsic to OTF and I look forward to offering the community a fitness environment that is not only welcoming and inspiring but also fun and effective.”
Orangetheory currently has 132 sold territories and 12 active developments across Canada. The company, known for its heart rate-based workout model and emphasis on “personalized prescriptive fitness,” already boasts approximately 50,000 Canadian members. Each new studio typically brings in between 500 and 700 members.
“We actually have two other Quebec City licenses that are in active negotiation, so we’re hoping to do a couple more in that market in 2025, said Katarina Gourlay, Director of Real Estate & Franchise Development of Orangetheory Fitness Canada.
“We’ve got 12 locations in active development right now and a total of 132 sold markets in Canada. And our plan for the next year when looking at our pipeline is to open between eight and 12 locations in 2025,” said Blake MacDonald, President of Orangetheory Fitness Canada.
Founded in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Orangetheory Fitness has grown to over 1,500 locations in 22 countries since launching in 2010, with nearly a million members worldwide. Since entering Canada in 2012, the brand has set itself apart with its customized approach to fitness, tracking each member’s biometrics in real time.
For 2025, Orangetheory plans to continue focusing on Quebec and Ontario, seeing high potential for growth in the regions as they ramp up the brand’s presence across Canada.
“Over the last 12 years, we’ve become sort of the global leader in what we call personalized prescriptive fitness. What does that mean? Lots of people associate us wrongfully with high intensity training or HIIT. We’re not really HIIT. What we are is this personalized prescriptive fitness, and it’s really its own category, and it’s different from everything else, because of four things,” explained MacDonald.
“First of all, the workout is prescriptive in nature. We prescribe how hard to work, what exercises you do, whether you’re doing strength training, endurance or power focuses for the day, how often you work out, what types of classes you do. Everything about what we do is prescriptive towards the person’s goals.
“Second, it’s customizable and scalable. It’s built for all fitness levels and all fitness goals, whether that’s strength training, weight loss or just living a longer, more vibrant life. Third, it’s measurable and trackable. Every participant’s biometrics are tracked, measured and communicated to the coach in real-time, which helps them be a better coach. And every workout’s data is available to our members through their app, and they can see, where and how they’re improving. Finally, the big difference is that it’s actually fun. It’s supported by an amazing community of people who are very accepting and lots of members say it feels like home.”
MacDonald said a recent study by the University of Montana that just came out found that going to Orangetheory a couple times a week leads to a longer and more vibrant life.
“The study essentially had a sample of people that took part in the workout for eight weeks, at least twice per week, and the results were staggering, substantial improvements to body composition, blood pressure, VO 2 max capacity, and significant changes to mental health – reduced feelings of depression, anxiety and stress, improved brain function, sleep quality. It’s clinically proven to have a huge effect in a very short amount of time on people’s health. And it’s so much more than just a gym. It’s a personalized, prescriptive fitness experience. And that’s what’s driving our success,” he said.
“We’re super excited about 2025. It’s always interesting to have people ask us about where our development is because obviously we took a little bit of a holiday from development during COVID. But I think what we’re seeing is a lot of our development is coming back on track, and there’s a ton of interest in the brand and our studios continue to grow year by year, both in members and revenue and I think we’re finding our legs again and finding our momentum. It’s an exciting brand to be with right now.”
Gourlay said typical locations are between 2,000 and 3,000 square feet.
“This past year, we launched a smaller footprint studio. Traditionally, the studios in Canada are 12 stations, in some cases 14. But now we’ve introduced a model for an OTF 8 and an OTF 10, which are 8 and 10 station studios. The feedback from the US who have launched a dozen of these smaller studios in 2024 has been really positive from the franchisee operators and members experience,” she said.
“So this allows us actually to go into markets where sometimes larger real estate isn’t available. It allows us to be a little bit more flexible and look at more real estate opportunities. In some markets, the franchisees just want to do an eight or 10 station studio, because that makes more sense for them economically, or because it’s a smaller market or an infill location. Ultimately, it gives us more flexibility for both the franchisee and the landlords.”
“A lot of the focus and development for 2024 and 2025 will continue to be in Quebec and Ontario. Quebec has been a great market for us. We’ve got 14 studios currently in Montreal. The reason we were excited about Quebec City is because there’s still real estate, and it’s valued quite modestly compared to other urban markets in Canada. What we’ve seen from the landlord incentives, they’re very generous in comparison to the GTA. The construction costs are low. Also there’s retail vacancy. We’re having a tough time in some of those GTA and GVA markets, where real estate’s like 1.5-2%. And truthfully, lots of fitness competitors have shied away from opening in Quebec City. So this gives us a great landscape to develop, and the brand has been so successful and well received in Montreal. That whole market is very strong for us, so it’s a great breeding ground for development.”
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