After a year of expanding into new markets, Blink Fitness, New York, announced it plans to jump from 64 locations to 90 by the end of 2018.
The Equinox sister brand has already signed 45 additional club development deals that include entering “six new major U.S. markets,” according to a media release provided to Club Industry. (Blink Fitness has yet to reveal the locations of the aforementioned markets.)
The new wave of low-priced boutique clubs will include the first opening of franchisee-owned Blink Fitness facilities, but the majority will be company-owned, the release said.
“It has been an incredible year in terms of growth both on the company-owned and franchise side,” Blink Fitness President Todd Magazine said in the release. “Becoming a bi-coastal brand and signing franchise deals across the Midwest, South and Northeast were two giant steps toward reaching our five-year goal of 300 locations nationwide. We are thrilled with the progress we have made in the past year and feel that we have even better things coming in 2018.”
In addition to expanding in its core New Jersey and New York markets in 2018, Blink Fitness notably moved into the Philadelphia and Los Angeles areas. As Magazine referenced in the release, the latter gives the brand its first foothold on the West Coast.
Blink Fitness’ first Los Angeles club opened in December 2017 in Gardena, California. The second club will open in early 2018 in a former theater in Huntington Park, California, and the third will open in late 2018 in Anaheim, California.
Blink Fitness also announced a partnership with fashion designer Johana Hernandez to create an exclusively branded collection by GLAUDI. Proceeds from collection sales are benefiting organizations that serve youth in the Los Angeles area.