Good afternoon. Welcome, everyone, to Basic-Fit's 2026 Capital Markets Day. My name is Richard Piekaar, Head of Investor Relations, and I would like to thank you all here in Hoofddorp for coming over, as well as everyone joining us online watching the webcast. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that Safe Harbor applies, and it applies to all forward-looking statements made during these presentations today. We are joined today by Basic-Fit's senior leadership team: René Moos, our CEO and founder; Rédouane Zekkri, our Chief Operating Officer, Erica van Vonderen-Hahn, our Chief Commercial Officer; and, of course, Maurice de Kleer, our CFO. This is the agenda. René will begin with an update on our strategy, and Rédouane will elaborate on our latest operational developments and our franchise business. After which, we will have a short break.
After the break, Erica will tell us more about how we are built to scale, and Maurice will then conclude the presentations with a more detailed look at our financial framework. After the presentations, we will have a Q&A session of 20 minutes. The slide deck, as well as a recording of today's event, will be made available shortly afterwards on our Investor Relations webpage, and the address you can see here on this slide. To get us started, let's look at what Basic-Fit is all about.
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Now let's welcome Basic-Fit's CEO, René Moos.
Good afternoon, everyone. It's great seeing you all here. It's been a while, two and a half years since the last CMD. Time flies when you're having fun, right? I would like to start with some opening remarks, and then we follow with the presentation. We started building Basic-Fit on one belief, and that belief was that we wanted to make fitness available and affordable for everyone. That belief hasn't changed. While it has not always been a straight line or not always easy, we have pushed forward because we knew what we were building. The result, we are the clear number one market leader in Europe. Our scale and leadership are the result of hard work, discipline, and, of course, staying true to the model. We now have the scale and the track record to choose how we grow.
Smarter, more efficient, better returns for our shareholders. I would say this is just the beginning. From the beginning, more than 40 years ago, getting old, we started the first club here in Hoofddorp, and it took us 20 years to build six clubs. That was, how we call it in sports terms, warming up. In 2010, we acquired 28 Basic-Fit clubs. We combined that with the HealthCity Basic formula that we have, and we start growing. In 2013, with the help of 3i, we were able to grow dramatically, and we increased the fitness penetration in the Benelux, focusing truly on the Benelux. Then 2016, ho, ho, ho. 2016, the IPO. During the IPO, we said that there was a huge white space in this market. The opportunity was real, the model was right, and after 10 years, we can say we were right.
We have grown tremendously. We have expanded across Europe, brought our model to millions of people, and the growth ahead of us is still huge. Today, we will walk you through how we got here and what we're going to do next. It's really the same foundation as 10 years ago, but an even bigger opportunity. Let's go. Now, this is a slide that is familiar to most of you. But these are the numbers since our IPO 2016. As you can see, we kept the foot on the gas with club openings, even though we had some challenging times during the COVID period. We have been creating by far the largest footprint in Europe. The big problem, of course, was this period, 2020 and 2021, COVID, when we were closed for a long time and lost half of our member base.
If you look at this display, that could tell you something. On balance, we did the right things. We strengthened our model. We showed a really disciplined execution. We are now stronger than ever, and with our current leading positions that really support our growth phase now, and we see we have a great future ahead of us. If you look at this slide, you can see the countries where we are active. Today, we are the market leader in five focus countries in both scale and footprint. We have now 2,184 clubs across the two labels, Basic-Fit and clever fit, and we have more than 6 million members and 9,500 employees. We have an amazing team, working really every day to build not just a network of clubs, but a strong and engaged fitness community. This is an achievement we are extremely proud of.
There's still significant room to grow our business by increasing the number of clubs by different approaches, by increasing the memberships in our existing clubs, taking more white space in the countries where we are already active, and, over time, potentially entering new markets. Our model works. The scale and strength we have built positions us to deliver an even stronger Basic-Fit as we move forward. When we look at the history, we see really three eras. To start, the first one was to scale up. It started in 2013 already, but definitely increased in June 2016 when we IPO'd. Our access to the capital allowed us to accelerate our expansion in a way that was in the past not possible. We rolled out new clubs at a fast pace, expanded into new geographies, and applied a clustering strategy to capture the market share efficiently.
The second era, the less fun period. The COVID period, a disruptor for the whole market in the world, so not only in our business. From 2020 onwards, our clubs, like those of the entire industry, were forced to close for extended periods. We adapted quickly and effectively. We invested further in our app, stayed connected to our members, and continued to strengthen our position. Importantly, we did not stop growing. We kept expanding our network as our market reopened. We extended into smaller cities, new areas while refining our membership model to balance accessibility with returns. This period, and not an easy period, really demonstrated the resilience of our business and our people. We believe we have in our strategy, really, the key for further growth. The third era, the high-quality growth area, the more happy phase. We delivered record results in Q1 2026.
We are supported by a more refined operating model and a stronger platform. This is the same Basic-Fit as ten years ago, but stronger and larger. This is key. Today, we have the scale, the learnings, and the track record to make choices from a position of strength. We will continue our organic rollout while refining our operating model to drive efficiency and to drive returns. Following the clever fit acquisition, we will introduce Basic-Fit-branded franchise clubs alongside the clever fit clubs. Next to Germany, we will also consider starting franchise in France, adding flexibility to our expansion. We continue to selectively pursue inorganic opportunities where they strengthen our market positions. Beyond 2016. As we said ten years ago, there's a huge white space. We say it now again, there is still a huge white space. I will show you a slide next, after this.
We can still have tremendous growth the coming 10, 20 years. The fragmented market is clearly to be taken. We really see consolidation options in the near future. Demand for a healthier lifestyle continues to increase, and the market remains, as said, highly fragmented. Which positions us well to capture further consolidation and drive long-term growth through our multi-vertical strategy. We build on this from a position of strength, continuing to scale with steady, reliable growth, strengthening our market position through selective inorganic opportunities, and develop our franchise model by leveraging our learnings from the clever fit acquisition. Across all of this, we remain disciplined, focused on sustainable growth, improving the quality of returns on capital, and allocating our capital carefully. The opportunity. 2016, the fitness penetration in our core five markets was 10.6%, 23 million people.
Now, 10 years later, today, the fitness penetration in those five countries are 13.8%. We grew with 8 million-9 million fitness members in the last 10 years in the five core markets. If we extrapolate that to the coming 10 years, we expect to grow again with the same amount of numbers. There's really no reason that would not happen. If we compare that to the U.S., but Rédouane will tell much more about this, we still see an even much bigger growth opportunity. The market increased significantly, but there is huge opportunity for growth. We said this before, but if we go to a market, we want to be the clear market leader. Going to new countries or going to existing market, our focus will always be the number one in a country. Be the logical choice.
If they think about fitness, they should think about Basic-Fit. Today, our scale and leadership gives us the real competitive edge. One thing that we can continue driving our growth and capture more market share. Our goal is simple, just be the number one player in every market we operate in. Our membership base is growing faster than the industry. If you look at the last 10 years, it's been growing faster than the industry. A true reflection of the strength of our brand and the reach of our platform. Rédouane and Erica will tell you some more about this. We are uniquely positioned to deliver this growth. Everything we've shown you, our market position, the performance, and the current footprint reflects one thing. We are uniquely positioned for this growth phase, and we have a resilient business model.
Broadly, you could say we have the scale, we have the brand name, we have the brand recognition, we have an operating model that works, and we have a strong sense of community within our members. We have the technology. Our smart camera systems improve the safety. The app improves engagement both create better efficiencies while lowering operating costs. Beyond our core memberships, we are expanding secondary revenue and add-ons, such as Yanga sports water, massage chairs, recovery offerings, and so on. All of this together drives one of the lowest break-even points in the industry, between 14 and 1,500 members per club to be cash flow break even. To say some more about this, I think this is crucial part of our success. We can run a gym without staff. We can run a gym with one person working at the gym, but everything is automated.
People can change the bank accounts, the address, and so on, start a membership, upgrade. Everything is built on our IT models. Because of that, we have extremely low cash flow break-even point. That will really help us in the future. Let's say 10 years from now, when there's a lot of competition, being cash flow break-even between 1,400 and 1,500 members is a crucially important step. You have to continue to refresh the clubs. If you can do that on 1,400 members, while all our competitors or most of our competitors need at least double or even more. This is really a business that is not only performing strongly today, but it's actually built for long-term quality growth. Now we can flex the strength of our position to make the most for our customers and our investors.
We have a platform that can scale to meet trends in the market. Yes, we will continue to deliver strong premium growth story. Alongside that, we are now increasingly focused on optimizing group return on capital employed. In simple terms, this means putting our capital to work while maintaining the highest standards of operating excellence. The team will provide more color on how this will be unlocked, but broadly, we see three clear pathways to do that: organic, inorganic, and franchise. We will maintain our growth momentum, but we will sharpen our focus on returns. Maurice will explain this in more detail in his presentation. Let's unpack the growth journey for 2026. The message is simple. We are confident we will deliver strong growth in 2026. On top of that, we see inorganic bolt-on opportunities and franchise to provide additional upside.
We are in a strong position to pursue this. On organic, our approach to M&A remains disciplined, focused on consolidations within existing markets to cash-generating bolt-on opportunities in Europe and focused on the DACH region, in particular. On franchising, we are progressing with clever fit and see clear opportunities to expand Basic-Fit franchise strategy in the markets, to start with Germany and France. This will be a small part of our business today, but we expect this, the franchise, to become increasingly relevant in a medium to long term. Rédouane Zekkri will discuss this in more detail. Franchise. Where am I? If you look at this slide, the Franchise and M&A, I think what you really see here is that what we can do and what we will do in the coming period, we will pursue to buy existing clever fit clubs.
We will convert them if they meet the right size, area, we convert them to Basic-Fit. If they don't, we will sell them off again to another franchisee. It will be in that combination. If we look at the bolt-on M&A, we will increase our focus on Germany and Austria. If, again, if we do an acquisition, we will do it if the box is the right size, it is similar, correct, and the EBITDA growth will be available quickly. It will not be a long-term investment. It will be something that we can put to work fast. If you look at what we've done the last two years, we did two acquisitions. One in 2024, we acquired 42 McFIT clubs.
What you see happened in a year and a half, we increased the revenue with 43% and, the underlying EBITDA with 52%, and the members with 60%. Huge improvement. We invested around EUR 400,000 on average per club, but the returns are really there. It also helped us to get the scale in Spain to really do national marketing and really improve the results in Spain. We're very happy with that acquisition. If you look at the acquisition we did last year, the clever fit organization with 493 clubs. If you look at the results, so we bought it in November 2025, four and a half months ago. If you now look at what we've changed already, the first quarter, we have already passed the EUR 7 million EBITDA, and the expectation for the full year will be around EUR 26 million EBITDA.
Franchise. This is actually the last slide. This is something we really strongly believe in. It will be a small part of our turnover and EBITDA for this year and next year, around 3%-4%. In time, we have really great expectation about this, because the potential to get the returns and improve our group return on capital employed while expanding our footprint in a more capital-light manner. It is still at the beginning today, but we see it really as a key pillar for our long-term strategy. I said it before, but our priority also for the franchise is ensuring that in the DACH region, we are the clear market leader. Our goal in Germany and Austria is to reach the Basic-Fit branded critical mass in 2027, which will allow us to launch national marketing.
We have seen in the past, once critical mass is reached, performance metrics accelerate meaningfully. Outside of the clever fit , we will also begin to expand the franchise opportunity in France. This is still at an early stage, so franchise, again, will be modest in 2026 and 2027, the contribution. Longer term, as we deliver on our business model, we believe franchise will become an increasingly important driver of growth, gradually complementing and in part replacing the more capital-intensive owned clubs while supporting a stronger return across the group. Well, this was part of my presentation, which I lost halfway, but I found it again. I'm really happy where we are now. I'm very proud what we have accomplished so far, and really excited about the next phase. The next phase, the one we will tell you more about, is Rédouane.
Rédouane, I will give the microphone to you.
Thank you, René , and good afternoon, everyone. What I would like to share with you in my part of the presentation is how we operate, in which markets, the opportunity we have, how we grow, and also, last but not least, why our model and strategy makes us unique in Europe. Best operator, best markets. Basic-Fit's strategy is simple. Be in the best markets, be the best operator in those markets, and invest optimally to capture the growth. Those three elements combined deliver a great cycle of return-enhancing growth, what we call the Basic-Fit flywheel. Best markets. As already explained by René , our markets have grown tremendously since the IPO, and significant runway remains, underpinned by long-term health trends. As you all know, the worldwide COVID crisis was an eye-opener for everyone on how important it was to be in a good shape.
The markets where we operate are under-penetrated and fragmented. Basic-Fit is a clear market leader for three reasons. Reason number one: strong brand recognition. My colleague, Erica, will tell you more about that in her presentation. I will tell you more in my presentation about the huge scale we created and the smart clustering. Best operator. We run the lowest cost base in the industry, which allows us to offer the most attractive price points while remaining highly profitable. Our execution capabilities are unique, and I will tell you more about that in my next slide. Optimally investing. What's different in the new era, as already told by René , is that we will diversify our growth approach from a simple owned club rollout approach to be supplemented by two growth accelerators, inorganic and franchise. Those three pillars don't work in isolation. Each one feeds the other two.
This is a competitive advantage we have been building the previous 15 years, and it only gets stronger with scale. We will leverage our unprecedented centralized model and operational know-how. Best markets. We have 6 million members today as we speak. The real question for you is, how far can we go? The answer is straightforward. If our core markets continue growing at the same pace as the previous 10 years, we will be welcoming around 8 million extra gym members by 2036. If the fitness penetration comes close to the one from the U.S., 23.4%, then we will be welcoming around 19 million extra gym members. That's more than three times the current base of members we have. Long story short, the opportunity is not behind us. The opportunity is ahead of us.
On this slide already presented by René , you can see that we are a clear market leader. Market leader in five countries from the 12. 2,084 clubs, 6 million members, and 9,500 employees. A great driver to guarantee the success of the future franchisee partners that we'll have to find. What's critical to understand when taking a look to this slide is that this leadership position is not a destination, it's a launchpad. Every single country you see on this map still has significant room for growth if we decide to grow in this country. Today I'm talking to shareholders, to analysts, so let's forget the words and let's deep dive on some numbers, country by country. What you see on this slide is the fitness penetration rise from the Netherlands.
Back at the listing of the company in 2016, 16.4%. As we speak today, 18.3%. If you continue rising at the same pace for the coming 10 years, we'll be ending 2036 with 20.2%. That means we could be welcoming 345,000 extra gym members only in the Netherlands. If you come close to the fitness penetration of the U.S., we will be even welcoming more than 700,000 gym members. As you can see on the slide behind me, this analysis has been prepared for all the markets where we are. There is one single common point. Huge opportunity as the fitness penetration is rising in all countries where we operate.
This means million of Europeans that are not yet gym members, and the only thing we have to do is to make sure that we will be the logical choice for them when they decide to join a gym. We are positioned exactly where the growth is supposed to happen. We expect the next 10 years' growth to deliver due to market trends, post-COVID health awareness. Younger generations really focus with social media on their own image, et cetera. Let me now deep dive country by country. The Netherlands. The Netherlands is our home market, and we believe it shows what the Basic-Fit model looks like at full maturity. We are by far number one, twice as big as number two. We offer the most affordable gym membership on the market, and we still have room to open at least 100 clubs in the Netherlands.
That combination of market leadership, price leadership, and opportunity for growth is exactly what we are replicating across Europe. If you now take a look to Belgium. Belgium tells an even stronger story. 60% market share by 2026. Twice as big as the top four competitors combined. Most affordable gym membership and potential to open at least 100 clubs. That's what happen when you combine the right price strategy with the right cluster strategy. In Belgium, members choose Basic-Fit not because they have to. They choose Basic-Fit because we are the best available option on the market. If you now deep dive on France, explosive growth country. Back to 2016, 0.1% market share. As of today, 30% market share, which means 30% of the French people doing fitness are now an active member of Basic-Fit. Highly fragmented market.
When we take a look at the competitive landscape, we opened twice as many clubs as the top four combined. Highly fragmented, franchise-focused markets. I will come back on that one later in my presentation. We still have the potential today to open hundreds of clubs in France. I will come back on that in my next slide. France is where our franchise model will now leverage and accelerate the growth in a way that is highly efficient. Spain can be, in a way, compared to France. Also, when we listed the company, we had 0.1% market share. Today, 9% market share. Highly fragmented market, where Basic-Fit is number two, just behind number one with four clubs extra, but the number 1 in organic growth. All competitors we have in Spain have been growing tremendously with acquisitions.
We have the ability to open up to 200 clubs-250 clubs if we want to. Also potential to open hundreds of clubs. Germany was a big part of the Capital Markets Day we had in 2023. Huge opportunity today with the acquisition of clever fit . We are number one in the number of clubs, 60% market share. It's a highly fragmented market. The specificity of the German market is that only 16% of the clubs belongs to major chains, which mean huge opportunity with the new era we are entering with inorganic opportunities. New countries that we acquired, thanks to the acquisition of clever fit , Austria and Switzerland, actually, those markets follow the same logic as you will see on this slide. Low penetration, fragmented competition, no real high value, low price. Long story short, we will not have to start from scratch.
We will just have to replicate what works in our other markets. Now that I explained why we are in the best market, I would like to deep dive on the facts and explain why we are the best operators. Saying that we are the best operator is not just a claim; it's the engine of everything. As you can see on the slide, our pioneering breakeven point is that 1,400, 1,500 members per club and the curve you see on that slide is our 2025 clubs' average, clubs which break even in the first month and continue growing. It means we reach profitability faster. We open clubs on locations where others can't make it work, and we generate strong return even in developing countries. It's also this low breakeven point, a great offensive and defensive tactic against the competitors. This is actually the result of five things.
First of all, the low CapEx that we have. We can open a Basic-Fit club between EUR 1.3 million and EUR 1.4 million. Land negotiation power. I will come back on that point on my next slide. Lean staffing model, as already explained by René , only one employee working at the same time in a club. Strong infrastructure and automated customer proposition. Erica will give you more information about that. Cost control discipline. The golden question could be, how do we actually maintain that low break-even point at 1,400 to 1,500 members per club while continuing to enhance return? Three levers are working together. First, the scale. With over 1,700 corporate-owned clubs, we build cheaper, we source cheaper, we negotiate better rents, and we invest in marketing more efficiently than any competitors.
Erica will tell you more about the huge budget that we have in marketing to be the most visible chain in the markets where we operate. The more clubs we open, the more benefits we will get. Number two lever, lean staffing model. One employee per shift and staff operations overnight in most of our countries. Remote support infrastructure. Those are not cost-cutting measures. It's a structural design choice. We invested a lot of time, money, and energy to make this happen. Last but not least, the technology already explained, so that the employees in the clubs can focus on one single thing, the members. All those levers are compounding advantages that get stronger with every new club we open. Let me now give you a concrete example of how we extend our operating efficiency.
As you heard last week, we got a green light from the French authorities to operate staffless in France. Starting the 1st of May, we will start with 50 clubs operating staffless between 1:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M. In the coming weeks and months, we'll extend this number of clubs to around 200 clubs. Impact, at least EUR 10 million saving per year. Conditions set by the French authorities, easy to understand, maximum 19 members with the existing system. Now in that, in all other countries where we operate, we have no limitation. We can be open even with 100 members or 200 members. It's a good step with the French authorities. Camera monitoring, communication options, ground floor clubs only. The great thing is that because of what we did in the Benelux 10 years ago, all the requirements are already met.
The 15 years of investment, IT, software helps us now to be compliant with the French law. As already said, this is the first step towards other markets with no attendance limits. In other words, more savings to come in the future, if we can convince the French authorities to copy-paste what's happening in the other European countries. I explained why we are in the best markets, why we are the best operators, how disciplined we are on the cost control. One thing is sure. If you want to stay the number one in the five countries where we are number one, and if you want to become number one in the seven remaining countries, we have to become the logical source for the members. Because at the end, it's not only about what it costs to build a club or to operate a club.
It's about how many people will be convinced that when they want to join a gym, they will join Basic-Fit. What we do we are highly visible. We have a data-driven targeted marketing that works. Erica will give you more details about that. Always nearby. Our cluster strategy means that we almost always have a club close to your home, close to your work, close to your school. Attractive value. As already presented in my competitive landscape by country, we offer the most affordable gym membership in the markets where we operate. Always available, 24/7 access across our network. High quality. We are continuously improving the product offer and the design of our clubs. Erica will deep dive on that point in her presentation. There is not a single company that can keep a leading position without adapting to the new markets or to circumstances.
Last but not least, very responsive. We are in 2026. Wherever you are in a fitness club or if in any business, when a customer wants an answer, they want a direct answer. The automated customer care developments we have made that Erica will present are really matching this desire. The data confirms it. On this slide, I would like to illustrate the club results of the 24/7 clubs in France, Germany and Spain. What you see here, let me deep dive on France. We decided on January 2025 to operate more than 300 clubs, 24/7 open in France. Let's imagine January is 100%, the member base 100%. Cost impact on year basis, EUR 38 million, because we are not allowed to work unstaffed in France at that time. Two good news to tell you. The first one, we reach the break-even point in October 2025.
The second good news is that you can see that after October 2025, we see a beautiful rising line, meaning we get more members on average per club. This is the result in France of the EUR 38 million we invested, but also the 15 years of investment in IT, proprietary data, software, and smart camera developments. The third and last pillar of our Basic-Fit flywheel is how we invest. Already presented by René . Organically, inorganically, and with franchise. Organically will be the key focus for what we call the incumbent markets, the Benelux. Small countries. You can take the car from the north to the south in one hour. Limited potential to grow. When you are talking to a company, being able to open 250 clubs a year, opening 100 clubs is limited for us. We can perfectly continue organically in those countries.
Inorganic will be strategically analyze, based on opportunities that we can have. In all the growth markets we have, France, Germany. Remember, Germany, only 16% of the clubs belong to major chains. Franchise, asset-light expansion mode with the local entrepreneur skills. If you take a look now at the history of HealthCity and Basic-Fit. Actually, we started 2004 to 2014 with HealthCity. Most of the clubs we opened were inorganic clubs. We took over clubs, and we became, in those 20 years, the champions in converting the clubs. Then we started in 2010 with Basic-Fit, and then we converted all the clubs one more time to Basic-Fit, and we started becoming the organic growth champion, being able to open up to 250 clubs a year.
Today, for the coming next two decades, we enter the new era where we combine what we learn with organic growth, inorganic and conversion skills, and franchise, thanks to the acquisition of clever fit , being the market leader in franchise world in Europe with more than 20 years of experience. Germany is a great perfect example of a country where you use the three verticals, organic, inorganic, and franchise. In Germany, we can double in size. Actually, Germany is the biggest market we have with more than 80 million inhabitants. Remember, in the Capital Market Day from 2023, I presented a detailed demographic analysis to show how many clubs we could open in Germany. We divided Germany in regions. We identified all the cities with at least 30,000 inhabitants. We identified by region, how many people living in big cities, in small cities.
In Germany, we will apply also the dual brand strategy, and it will be the only country in the group where we'll have and Basic-Fit and clever fit. Basic-Fit focusing on the big cities and also small cities, and you know, we also have many clubs in small cities. clever fit in the smaller cities, as more than 50% of the current clever fit clubs are located in small cities. Anyway, we have hundreds of franchisees with a signed contract that we have to respect. In the pipeline, great opportunity, 16% of the clubs belong to major chains, which mean we will have room to grow inorganically to capture market shares directly from day one with members, and also limit the market fragmentation in Germany. Now take a look to France, a key franchising market, as already introduced by René in his presentation.
If you take a look to the top franchise countries worldwide, you see that France is number three, just behind the U.S. with hundreds of millions of inhabitants, and China with 1.3 billion, 1.4 billion, 1.5 billion inhabitants. If you take a look to Europe, franchise France is the European franchise leader, with more than EUR 93 billion franchise turnover in 2025, more than 2,000 brands and 93,000 franchise stores. If you also take a look to the competitive landscape of France, all our top nine competitors, top ten competitors, are franchise. It's a growth opportunity for us. We do see potential to open 500 clubs in France. It will also allow us to capture investors from competitors. We would prefer to have someone opening a club with Basic-Fit instead of opening a club with a competitor in France.
The franchise culture is deeply embedded in France. We have a strong market demand for franchise since 2015. When we opened the first club in 2015, monthly, we were receiving requests from investors to open a Basic-Fit club in franchise. We were only growing organically. Of course, we have a strong knowledge of France with the 900 clubs we built the previous 11 years. Advantages: local entrepreneur control costs, they have better local marketing and community. We can boost the profitability of the clubs, and of course, because we opened rationally all the clubs in France, we have now 900 clubs. We also have an option to sell existing clubs to support the franchisee development. The golden question now is, do we have potential to open 500 clubs in France? The answer is yes. I will show you why.
If you take a look to this line, you see from 2021- 2023, we opened more than 240 clubs in France. The last two years, we only opened 52 clubs. Opening only 52 clubs was a corporate decision. We decided with both colleagues to stop expanding in France to more focus our time, money, and energy in making the return better of the existing clubs. If you now deep dive on the clubs that we opened last year, so the Q1 opening is 2025. We opened in France 17 clubs, Q1 last year. They are now one year old. All those clubs are on target or overperforming. Yes, the demographic shows we can open 500 clubs, and the results of the clubs we opened last year also show we can open 500 clubs together with the expertise from the franchise partners.
The logical choice for franchisees. I explained to you we are in the best markets, the best operators, cost control discipline, logical choice for the members. But because we want to enter in the new era of the franchise, we also have to find a way to become the logical choice for franchisees. The question I would like to answer with this slide is: Why would a franchisee choose Basic-Fit over any other competitor? The answer is easy. Because we will give them every advantage they need to succeed, and no competitors in Europe can match it. I will explain to you that with some words. First of all, the model we are selling now to franchisees in France is a model that we tested and that we believe in.
We invested more than EUR 2 billion in the model we would like now to sell to franchisees with organic growth. Established leading brand, number one in Europe, with great marketing power. Organic expansion track record. Not a single company in Europe is able to open 2 clubs-250 clubs organically. Automation, low break-even point, lean staffing model, all the things that I presented in my presentation. All those things mean two things for the franchise, three things for the franchisees. Better openings, they can fill their clubs quicker. They reach quicker the break-even on clubs. They have a lower CapEx to invest, EUR 1.3 million-EUR 1.4 million, and last but not least, better club margins, thanks to the lower operating costs, Head Start, remote operations, economies of scale. As a conclusion, it's a real win-win situation.
Superior economics and lower risk for franchisees with Basic-Fit, and for the shareholders and the franchisees, accelerated low-cost growth for Basic-Fit shareholders. I would like to illustrate all those points in a short video.
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Thank you. As you can understand, we are really excited with the franchise opportunity, and we can't wait to capitalize on all that we created for corporate-owned clubs. The core focus on short-term remains, as already explained by René, on the corporate-owned clubs. My colleagues, Erica and Maurice, will tell you more about the rationale behind this decision. We are working hard on the new era with franchise. To conclude, I would like to say that we are ready to share the next big hits with organic, inorganic, and franchise. We are operating in the right markets. Markets that are structurally growing and still significantly under-penetrated. Best operator. We run the most efficient operations in our markets. A model that has been refined over 15 years and gets stronger with every new club we add. We have to act to stay the logical choice.
As already explained, there's not a single company that keeps the number one position if it does not adapt to the market. To end up optimally investing, we will build two solid bases, the corporate-owned clubs and the franchise clubs, to capitalize on everything that we created and to share this knowledge with the entrepreneurs being the franchisees. You need to find the right partners, right? Selecting the partners is key for the long-term success of Basic-Fit. We need to find investors and franchisees that share the same drive, the same value, and the same mindset. We often hear it's easy. It seems to be easy to open a fitness club. Just have to rent a location, to put some machines, buy a CRM system, and you can start.
It's the sum of all our execution capabilities, the low break-even point, the lean staffing, the marketing power, the 24/7 access, all the cluster strategy, all those things make us unique. We are not just a club with fitness equipment. We are Basic-Fit. Thank you very much, and time now for a short coffee break. Thank you.
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Welcome back, everyone. I hope you enjoyed your coffee and that you are ready for the second part of today's event. We will kick off the second part with the commercial story. For the commercial story, we have our CCO, Erica. The floor is yours.
Thank you, Richard, and welcome everyone. I'm super excited to share the story today. To be honest, I think we're in a better place than we've ever been before, so therefore it's even more fun to share the story today. What I will share with you today is about grow, how do we grow the market? Keep, how do we keep them in longer? And increasing value, how do we increase value? We do that by making predictive decisions that get better as we scale. How do we do that? By this beautiful member value creation engine. It's all centred around member obsession because we believe that if we do well for our members, commercial impact will be realised. If we look at the first lever, grow. If we grow the market more efficiently, our clubs will fill faster. I'll actually make it stop turning.
I could see some faces going like. If we acquire more efficiently, the clubs will fill faster. If we keep members in a month longer, that's a month extra revenue at zero incremental cost. If we increase the value, the value of every relationship across that huge member base will increase. This is the base of our story. This is the base of our commercial engine. I think no one can replicate what we do, because we have such a scale, we have such a data, we have the technology, and also our expertise that we apply to this model that is very hard to replicate. Rédouane already shared with you the huge potential in the market, because there is such a potential for the fitness market. We see demand is evolving.
It's much more about feel good, it's much more about longevity, but also about lifestyle and community. I think it's actually quite exemplary that we see the younger generation now going to gyms instead of going to discotheques. Quite symbolic, this used to be the most popular discotheque of North Holland, and we use it now to create all of our fitness content. Right? It's very exemplary for the market moving towards fitness. On the other side, we see the supply is broadening. We see boutique gyms, we see specialists like PT studios, we see digital offerings. The traditional gyms remain between 75% and 80% of the market. We are still by far the biggest in that. It's great that there's more supply, because sometimes we also learn.
We can keep our focus because we are focused on what the total market needs. We will step into a trend when the trend is here to stay, not just a trend for trend's sake. We are able to invest way more strategically because we know exactly what is here to stay. Like I just said already, the younger generation they go to the club, they go to the gym instead of going to the bar. We are able to get that young generation in. It's the fastest-growing segment in our market. This generation prioritises health and well-being more than any generation before. It's important because it shows that we're already capturing the next generation of gym goers. Our brand is specifically built to also resonate with them. Our digital experience is how they want to engage with brands.
It's a strong proof that our model is not just relevant today, but also for that whole market opportunity to come. Going back to the beautiful member value creation engine. The first pillar that I'll explain to you is grow. After that, we'll go into keep, and then we'll go into value. Just so that you have a bit of a view of what's there to come. The first one is grow. I would say growing is our most important KPI because we want to fully capture all of that market opportunity. How do we grow? By having a better brand, by having better creatives and better investments. Yeah? Those are always the three pillars that we really focus on. The better brand. If we look at our brand, we have a recognition rate above 90% in all of the mature markets.
We are very aware we're the first choice people think of. How do we do that? Most importantly, this beautiful bag. I think it's the It bag, as announced by Marie Claire. It's more popular than Louis Vuitton. It's the simplest and strongest expression of our brand. People are freaking joining for this bag. Of course, the most important thing, why do we do this? Because it's 8.5 million billboards walking around on the streets with our bag. Obviously, that's very low cost and high return. We just had a mini baggie, and everyone gets one to bring home, so at least you have something fun to bring home. Secondly, creators. Creators is actually the new term for influencers because influencers are so 2025. It's now creators.
They help us build authentic reach at a fractional cost of the traditional media. This is something that we really invest in across all of our markets, and we're also very good at attracting creators. 805 million video views on TikTok, biggest brand in the world in TikTok for fitness, obviously. I wanted to share with you one example of the Netherlands. It was the most recent creator campaign that we did with Ties and Karst, 890,000 views in only three days. Yeah, let me just share the video with you.
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I think this is just a great example where everything around our brand, the community feel, being accessible literally to everyone, really comes together. This is literally at a fractional cost of what traditional media would cost us. We do this in all of our markets, but this was just the most recent viral example. Going to partners, we have partnerships in all of our markets. Of course, as France is such a big market for us, we now sponsor the Tour de France. This has been a very strategic choice because the Tour de France is the most loved brand by the Frenchies. If we engage with them, obviously, that will have a great impact on our brand as well. What you see there on the right is a great car built from our bag.
Again, the bag comes back in all of our communications, and we see that it's really resulting in a great uplift in our membership intent. A 55% increase in our membership intent. That means we're also always measuring commercial impact. It's not just about a fun partnership; it's really about the impact it makes on a commercial level. Lastly, campaign. The other one shared with you all of that market growth that we already realised in the past years. To grow even further, we need to grow this market. We need to make it very clear that fitness is about much more than building muscles. It's also about feeling good. That's what our latest campaign is about. We see it's growing the market. We see a higher than 90% awareness in all of our mature markets.
We see also increases in the membership intent, so people actually wanting to join a gym. Going to the next pillar, actually better creative. For us, better creative is not just about making nicer ads, but it's about building a scalable system that makes creatives that are cut through, creatives that stand out. If they stand out, they will make a bigger impact. Because of that, media becomes more efficient. Media becomes cheaper because the impact of the creative is higher. For example, the last one, modular system. We've built this AI-driven modular system that creates over 1 million assets every week to make sure every ad is personalised for you at the moment you want to see it, at the moment you want to engage with our brand.
That is actually increasing conversions, and by that, it's lowering the cost per joiner. Yeah? It's making all of our marketing more efficient. Then better investment. Most importantly, on this slide is actually the first one. We are really investing in making sure we open the clubs in the best way possible. We are now at 1,000 members, 30 days after opening. There is 1,000 members 30 days after opening. Like everyone already explained about the break-even point, this has a huge impact on our financial results. It's de-risking club openings, but it's also getting to the break-even much faster. 33% increase compared to two years ago when we had our last Capital Market Day. It's data compared 2023 versus 2025.
If we look at the last one also, media mix modelling, we do all of that data, all of that media that we spent, we put it into this model, and it creates the best outcomes where we should spend our money. Actually, we make every euro work harder because we know exactly how to spend it in the best way possible. Something that might surprise you is TV is still working very efficiently for us. I know everyone thinks it's dying, but our model keeps on reiterating it works. Whenever we try to not do it directly, our sales are impacted in a negative way. It still works. For us, it's about whether a channel is performing. It's not about whether a channel is trending. It's about whether it's performing and delivering results. What does this grow pillar then deliver?
We see a 30% increase in total sales, but also if we look at the joiners per club compared to 2023, we see still a 10% increase. That is on a more mature state. It's not quicker fill-up of clubs, it's on a more mature state. Secondly, the cost per joiner are down 9%, so that is showing that we are not just growing, but we're growing more efficiently, so the costs are down. Thirdly, the ramp-up is 33% quicker after 30 days. All of this at a stable 5% of revenue. We're getting more efficient as we scale further. Next pillar, keep. I already said it in the beginning, but every month we keep a member longer is a month extra revenue at zero incremental cost. This is something that we very much invest in.
Therefore, we have to keep evolving with our customers. We have to keep delighting our customers. We see three main pillars below keeping members longer. Building experience, having the best experience possible. Building habits. If they're in a habit, they will be more sticky. Building service. If you're a happy member, you'll stay longer. Building experience. Of course, we know our experience with our brand happens in the club. We really invest in a good club experience. On this slide, you can see the newest designs of our clubs, where we adjusted the lighting we adjusted some materials. Everything is much brighter, still keeping it accessible for everyone. Yeah. A club that feels more like home and not just a place where you go to suffer. Because back in the day, gyms were really a place where you went for suffering.
We believe it's actually a place where people really enjoy, where people like to go to now. Secondly, Google reviews. A 54% increase in our clubs with a 4-star or higher rating. We really improved all of our reviews. They're now 85% answered by AI. We also continuously make our processes more efficient. The last one improves product. We keep on adjusting our product based on the needs of our customer. For example, last year there was a higher demand for plate loaded in our clubs. We really launched plate loaded in all of the clubs. We keep on adjusting based on the needs of our members. The second pillar, building habits. If members get into a habit, they will be more sticky, and they will stay longer. Habit building is extremely important.
If we look at the second one, rewarding Gen Z, but also millennials, they love badges. They would do anything to get badges. We really invest in that system, and they actually change their behavior based on getting a badge, yes or no. If we change their behavior, we get them into a habit, and we know they will stay longer. This is working very well for us. Also, members that bring in other members. If you train together, you'll enjoy it more, and both parties will stay longer. We really invest in making people go together. There we see a 45% increase in joiners via our Member Get Member program, and a 90% increase compared to 2023 on converted friends. Friends that come with a member and that are actually converting into a membership.
All numbers that are really great, I would say. This is the habits explained. How does it actually work with that habit building? We have an engine that runs on all of the data of our members. That's why it's also very hard to copy. The engine runs, everything is personalised in the moment that you want to receive the message on the channel that you want to have your communication in. We see there a 9% increase in our length of stay, but also we're now at 24 months length of stay. I do want to stress there it's the best we've ever been at. We've never been at 24 months before. When we IPO'd, we were around 17 months-18 months. This is really a great result. Improving our service at lower cost.
We do really believe that every negative case that we prevent is a more happy member. The more cases we prevent, the happier our members will be. Our AI chatbot, we can all think of AI chatbots, what we think of them, but it's solving 90% of our cases. Solving means the question, did this answer fully help you? Yes. Almost 90% of the cases are helping. That means that our members, our employees from the service team can focus on the more complex issues and actually really help members when they really need the help. Because we have so much data, we can find a needle in a haystack. We reduced our need for contact by 13%. Actually, we solved things before it even became a problem for the member. My Basic-Fit, our members love using it.
101% increase in self-service sessions because it's so easy to do everything yourself in our own platform. We outsourced our customer service for higher quality at lower cost. All of this results in a 40% reduction of cost per member. There, we really do it way more efficient, still keeping our quality of service at a high level. Longer member lifetime value delivered. Length of stay is up 9% compared to 2023. A 54% increase in our clubs with a four-star rating. Cost of service down with 40%. Also cases per 100 members are down. The combination of more efficient acquisition and a longer length of stay obviously increases the customer lifetime value. Going to the last pillar, value, member value. As accessibility is in our core, we want to keep our accessibility for everyone.
We will always keep the lowest entry point because that is actually what's growing the market. We will always remain the lowest entry point. However, we also want to add value whenever members want to spend more that we do have that offering. These four pillars I'm going to explain on the next slide. Improved offering. We launched Ultimate membership last year, January, and we already see a 40% uptake of joiners taking the Ultimate membership. That is all joiners that pay 5 EUR more than they paid in 2024 or 2023. Data-driven innovations. I just shared with you that habit-building machine, but we also have that building machine for all of our upselling. So we know exactly who to target, when to target them, and try to upsell them. See a 64% increase in the upgrades of our members. Then, improved secondary revenue.
We also see double-digit growth there. Retail media and vending, those are two of our main pillars. If we look at it per member, it's still more than double-digit growth. Last one, test and learn. You see the relax and recover here. We test a lot of new products, but this one was extremely successful. We only had a pilot phase now, but we saw 166% upgrade to Ultimate compared to clubs that did not have this product. We really invest in it, we really make a business case out of it, and we make sure the returns are there. Increased member value delivered, 6% increase in yield. More than 40% of joiners choose Ultimate now, 64% membership upgrade, and the secondary revenue that continues to show double-digit growth. With that, actually, we get to the most important slide that summarises it all.
Here I really need your attention. We didn't just grow; we structurally improved the economics of the business. Because this system of input with all that data, all that technology, all of that creative, goes into this engine, and the result will only get better as it scales. We've been able to grow the output, 30% increase in sales. We've been able to increase the length of stay with 9%, and we've been able to increase the yield per member, the value, with 6%. Because this is a system, it scales only further. It will only get stronger as we get in more members. It's transferable across organic, inorganic, and franchise clubs. This system is applicable on all of those growth levers. Already getting to my last slide, driving growth and returns. What you've heard from me today is not just a commercial story.
It's the power of our brands, our data, our technology, our ability to keep improving. I think it's fair to say that no one in the industry has a system like this, but I would even say no one anywhere, because it's really great what we have built on the impact that we're making and the scale that we are doing it. I'm very proud because we do it with so much ambition, but also with humility, because we keep on improving the system, we keep on learning, we keep on doing it better, and that's why, quoting René , "I believe we're only just getting started." Thank you very much. Now handing over to Maurice.
Well, thank you, Erica, for your very kind introduction.
Yes.
Welcome. Good to see you all today. Let's dive into the financial framework. My goal today is actually to show how Basic-Fit currently uses its existing scale, and also how Basic-Fit will use that same scale to achieve future durable return-enhancing growth. René already shared the context with us. We come from a period of pure and rapid expansion, and we've just entered that new era of disciplined growth and capital efficiency, which will be anchored by a new measure, group ROCE. Today in addition, of course, we will look at the growth engines, capital allocation framework, and our medium-term ambition. If you look at the KPIs in the past decade, what we see is double-digit growth, both on clubs, members, revenue, and EBITDA. Actually, if you look at this is what a growth engine looks like. It is a success story.
It is not just luck or coincidence. This is clear proof of a successful, scalable, well-executed business model. Erica already explained that that model has two legs. Of course, it's about creating high value for our members, but it is also about industry thought leadership. That's actually key in the success now and in the near and medium-term future. It is about that low break-even point that Rédouane mentioned to reach that point in only four months after opening a club. It is about economy of scale, operating leverage that really is delivering. It is about purchasing power and still increasing purchasing power, and it is about all the investments that we made in automation and still are making in automation and AI. That is actually key in being the current European market leader with the ability to operate in several jurisdictions.
This is not a static model. This is a dynamic model. This is a model where we work on every day, every week, and every month. It is the basis of success now and also going forward, and it is actually instrumental to keep that in mind during my presentation. Let's take a look again at the three eras that René already introduced. Of course, that first era, just after the IPO, it was about rapid expansion. Second era, very much plagued by pandemic challenges, but still rapid expansion. Era one and era two are now enabling us to have entered era three, where we can have a focus on much more high-quality growth, and also have an optionality in that growth to go for organic, inorganic, and franchise, with all resulting in a group ROCE.
At the medium term, we expect that to come in at low and mid-teens. Return on capital as key guiding principle. Of course, you can ask the question, why are you doing it and why are you doing it now? It's crucial to see that we now have choices in Era Three . It is about that multi-vertical approach and the ROIC that we know for a decade already that we have been using in opening clubs. Every opened club, we expect to have a ROIC in the third year after opening of 30% is still usable, still suitable for organic growth, but less so for franchising since there is no initial investment, of course. To better compare organic, inorganic, and franchise growth, we introduce group ROCE. It is to compare asset-light and asset-heavy club rollouts.
It's also taking into account central costs and to ensure that we utilize our invested capital as efficient as possible. Again, group ROCE enhancing growth to generate more shareholder value, more cash flow, or more clubs while providing the same customer value proposition. With that group ROCE as our new era objective, we have three growth strategies. It is about organic, still organic growth, proven, reliable, relatively capital-intensive , and we will only do it if it meets our ROIC requirements. In addition, we have that inorganic growth to speed up and accelerate. Discipline, not opportunistic, and only if it's in a medium-term group ROCE-enhancing . Last but not least, franchise. In essence, CapEx light and to be able to turbocharge actually group ROCE. How to deliver that ROCE-enhancing growth?
It's good to see that it is made possible by the scale, the brands, and the operational strengths that we have built in era one and era two. That is actually allowing us now to partially shift from organic to inorganic and franchise growth with a lower CapEx intensity, resulting in an improved asset turn, so more revenue per euro of assets by adding more members per club and the low-asset franchise. It is about improving margins, so more EBITDA per euro of revenue. Again, more members per club, having the same OpEx, the same operating cost on club level, and of course, again, adding franchise. It is about improved cash generation. CapEx-light franchise going forward. That all delivering in the medium term, a group ROCE where we expect that to come in at low and mid-teens.
Let's switch to the first growth strategy that we have, and it is probably the most familiar one to you, the organic growth. Since the IPO, we have seen rapid growth. 18% CAGR, resulting now in European market leadership. In Q1 2026, we are on track to meet our annual target of 60 clubs. We've opened 28 already. Looking forward, we expect a comparable pace of growth with a ROIC of at least 30%, and of course, in itself, also ROCE-enhancing in the medium term. Actually, we are convinced that this alone will deliver on market expectations. Of course, there's more. Since the IPO, we have seen a similar growth in memberships, also an 18% CAGR. We are on track in 2026 with 5.1 million members at the end of Q1. This is actually key in ROCE enhancing growth going forward.
Because the future membership growth is not only on new clubs, it is also on existing clubs, and that is actually more important. This actually drives our EBITDA, our margin, and cash going forward, and is that accelerator of group ROCE. Let me dive a little bit more into that, and let's look at the maturation of our club network. You know that after we open a club, as we said, it is already breakeven at four months operating. Of course, it takes still two to three years to mature, and then even after that, we see an additional growth. That means that EBITDA margins for immature clubs are of course, lower than average, and EBITDA margins of a younger mature club are also lower than average.
With the slower pace of growth already explained, we see a shift of membership from the newer clubs to the existing clubs. If you keep in mind that, still today, one out of five clubs in our network is still considered immature, and a part of that mature clubs is still rapidly growing, then this maturation effect in the short term will unlock EBITDA and drive group ROCE in the near term. Let me quantify that. You've seen that during the year 2025, so if we compare end of year 2024 with end of year 2025, we have been able to add, on average per club, 200 members. If, in the medium term, we are able to add an additional 300 members, please keep in mind that in the first quarter alone of this year, we were able to add 80 members of the 300 already.
With an average yield of EUR 300, this will deliver us EUR 90,000 per club extra revenue in the near term, near or medium term. If we multiply that with the 1,700 clubs that we have, this brings us alone already EUR 150 million of revenue. If you look at our P&L, this revenue, this additional revenue, automatically almost flows directly to EBITDA and margins. Given the fact that, of course, the operational costs at club level are already there. This is the key ROCE driver, and this is growing profit without expanding the asset base. The fourth driver in our organic growth strategy is actually yield. We've seen at the end of the first quarter that yield ended at EUR 24.95, and it's also very much influenced by the fact that we have had a strong income growth in the first quarter.
Keep in mind that new members have a four or five-week period that has an influence on that yield. Two drivers to keep in mind. The first one is, of course, the change in our pricing mechanism introduced at the 1st of January 2025, applicable for all new members. As Erica already explained, we see a significant uptake in the Ultimate, so the more expensive memberships, going forward currently and going forward. At the same time, we are upselling our current memberships to the higher-priced memberships. Please keep in mind, of course, we will safeguard that low entrance barrier to guard our market position because we want to stay accessible for as many people as possible. This, really, going forward, is driving our returns. Just to summarise, what are the key drivers?
What are the four key drivers in the near term and medium term in organic growth? It is still about steadily going that owned club estate. It is even more the continued membership growth at our existing clubs. It is the maturation of our club network, and it is further yield growth. Let's switch to the inorganic growth. How do we look at this? Inorganic growth is the best way actually to speed up to accelerate organic growth. We will only do it in a disciplined way, so not opportunistic. We will only do it if we are really convinced that at the medium term, we are able to extract the value out of it, and it is ROCE-enhancing at the same medium term. What are we looking for? We're looking for value from many operators. We're looking for new memberships that immediately drive our EBITDA.
Looking for operational synergies, which are margin-enhancing and strategic relevance. Mostly in existing and immature markets. Of course, acquisitions or doing acquisitions is not new for us. We have a considerable track record, and that track record gives us the confidence going forward. René already mentioned, if you look at the graph in the bottom half of the slide, that the acquisition that we made in France or in Spain, 42 McFIT gyms, rebranded in the summer. Two years after integrating, we have actually been able to drive EBITDA with 70% on those clubs. Please keep in mind, they were already successful clubs when we acquired them. That has been a very successful acquisition, and it has been very ROCE-enhancing . Let's look at the most recent acquisition that we did last year, clever fit . Again, what did we buy?
Main thing is that we acquired a franchise platform. From a strategic point of view, crucial for our future. In that platform, by the way, we also have 39 owned clubs in Austria and in Germany. It also gave us, by the way, a very strong position in DACH region. It gives us also optionality to optimize our portfolio between owned and franchise clubs. I think it was in October last year that we shared with the market that we acquired clever fit on a multiple of between 11x and 12x based on the 2024 numbers. That was actually the basis of defining our purchase price. Given the fact that in 2025, we were able to have an EBITDA of a little bit under EUR 22 million, we already have a multiple now of approximately 8x. René already shared in the first quarter, we had an EBITDA of EUR 7 million.
For the full year, we expect a little bit over EUR 26 million of EBITDA for the full year, and that means that if you look at that, we are now at a multiple of six. That means that we are well on the way to our target that René communicated last December, of three to six at the end of 2027. As a CFO, I'm absolutely, certainly, not only from a strategic point of view, also from a financial point of view, I'm really pleased with this acquisition. Please keep in mind that we did this acquisition, gained control at the mid of November last year. That means that we're only five months on the way now. Yeah, it's only the beginning, I would say.
Our track record and the most recent acquisitions that we did, McFIT and clever fit , that gives us the confidence that we are actually able to extract the value out of that acquisitions and are able to accelerate in the market, and it is ROCE enhancing. Let's go to franchise. The most recent part of our growth strategy. Yeah, the key message is, of course, from a return perspective, that franchise is a ROCE booster. It is in itself CapEx light. It adds pure margin. It is cash flow and ROCE enhancing, given the fact that the brands and the systems that we have invested in, we have them available, and the systems can scale. This has a clear strategic appeal. The focus is, as Rédouane Zekkri said, it is on Germany and France.
Of course, this will have more impact once we are able to scale over time. Just to be sure that we are on the same page. How is that franchise economics actually working? There are three main recurring income streams. On one hand, the royalties, mostly for our brands. It is about group and local marketing contributions and fee from services, for example, commissions on fitness equipment. It has its appeal because it is de-risking. It is about de-risking, and it is an increase of profitability. Again, as I said, key is achieving scale. In the long term, we might expect that we have more franchise clubs than owned clubs. That will certainly drive that ROCE up. Just to set that expectations, the activities on this are well on the way. Rédouane Zekkri already explained it.
We have been working very hard the last five months after acquiring clever fit , and meaningful growth will of course take time. Just to conclude with an illustration of it, and again, it is what I said before, it is about CapEx light investment. It is pure margin-enhancing growth, and over time, this will really drive group ROCE up. Actually, three strategies, all supporting group ROCE. Of course, this may all not be a linear evolving from now on. Organic growth, pretty much predictable, or inorganic, of course, in itself not, and franchise a bit more predictable than inorganic, I would say. If we translate that multi-vertical growth strategy to revenue, how is that reflected in revenue? If you look at what we see in the year 2026, yeah, actually, it's an amazing story.
We have a double-digit growth in revenue. What you see here, if you look at that breakdown, that the near-term key revenue drivers this year, but you can expect that also in the near term, are actually that although modest, still the club growth, but more members per club, the maturation effect that's already shared with you and the yield. We also see, of course, the consolidation effect of clever fit , which we had in for two months in 2025, and we'll have in for 12 months in 2026, and a relatively small effect from franchising and optional, of course, M&A. Again, looking at it, this is actually, well, very good developments and also giving something about what we may expect in a very near term after 2026. Let's switch to earnings. If you look at earnings and you look at me, then you see a happy CFO.
Because again, we see double-digit growth in EBITDA. We see the margins increasing, and why is that? It is top-line P&L driven by the existing club base, maintaining strict cost control on both the clubs and the overhead. We have some tailwinds as we shared with you, from 24/7 regulations and possibly also from the Belgian VAT. I think the key message is here that this is actually what high-quality growth looks like. The revenue is up, margins is up, and cash flow is improving. Looking forward from 2026, these trends will continue with a controlled organic growth in members, club and yield, more franchise, and targeted M&A. Let's focus at an important topic, capital allocation or even capital allocation hierarchy. Where do we stand today? I think we've shown René , Rédouane, and Erica that there are huge opportunities for growth.
We have an optionality in strategy. We are best positioned as a European market leader to capture that growth. If we translate that to capital allocation hierarchy, then the focus is on a modest organic growth, which is in essence, relatively capital-intensive . We will only do it if it meets our ROIC requirements, and we know that there is a strong business case for that, given the fact that we are already break even at four months after opening. In addition, we will look at, in a disciplined way, M&A transactions, but only if that, of course, at medium term, is group ROIC enhancing. We will maintain balance sheet efficiency. The target for net debt ratio is still below two, but of course, it can be temporarily higher if there's a strong business case for M&A.
Not in the near term, but eventually, we may look at shareholder distribution according to this hierarchy. The philosophy is simple. It is about targeted investments. It is about balance sheet strength and optionality. Reflected in that capital allocation strategy is of course, the reduction of CapEx going forward. Reduction of CapEx intensity, and that is being done by reducing that organic growth. Which results, of course, in having more options, but especially in higher cash generation, higher returns, financial flexibility and strategic optionality. Let me summarize. Again, there are huge opportunities for growth, and Basic-Fit is the best positioned to capture that growth. We will continue limited organic growth, mostly in our mature markets, if it meets our ROIC requirements.
We will look for M&A opportunities, selective, focused in a disciplined way, if we are convinced that we are able to extract medium-term value and drive at the medium-term group ROIC. Of course, we will use franchise as a ROIC booster. It's all about growth, but at optimal returns. Our strategy, of course, is supported by a solid financing structure. Basic-Fit has a clear runway ahead. It has managed debt maturities, a significant positive cash flow this year and onwards, and we have a main bank facility that matures in 2029. As you know, last week, we issued a new convertible bond. The rationale behind it is to support flexibility and optionality in our growth strategy. It is about optimizing our balance sheet by refinancing the remainder of the first bond and part of the RCF. It is also to manage our interest cost for longer term.
It saves around EUR 7 million-EUR 8 million on an annual basis on interest cost. Why last week? Well, it was a good opportunity. It was a good opportunity to issue a convertible bond under attractive conditions. Please keep in mind that at the 17th of June, we have to meet the redemption request of our bondholders in the first bond of approximately EUR 145 million. Yes, we have to stand by facilities to meet any request from our bondholders, but that would already mature in 2028, so become current at June 2027. There was a time to act. Finally, of course, we live in a dynamic world. The Strait of Hormuz has been closed and open again more times than I can recall. At least it's more times than in the rest of my previous lifetime.
Of course, we have the responsibility to manage our financing structure. Let me go to the final slide. As you know, we have adjusted our EBITDA range. Please pay attention that we adjusted both the lower and the higher end of that range. I got already some questions if that wasn't too conservative. Well, as a CFO, I'm a bit on the conservative side, but of course, if results improve, we will keep you updated. In the medium term, having entered Era Three, the focus is, it is all about growth. We can make choices in the way we invest. We will use group ROCE as key metric, and we may expect that to come in the medium term, low to mid-teens. We will using a disciplined investment framework focusing at free cash flow, while of course, maintaining balance sheet efficiency.
That concludes, well, the fourth and last presentation of today. Thank you. Time for Q&A. Closing remarks.
Well, I think the presentation were very clear. We were all a bit nervous when we started, but glad it's over. We are really ready for the questions. What we wanted to tell you today is that we are back in a new era, a new period, and we are highly enthusiastic where we are currently. We're looking forward to the next 10 years to grow the business and get more people fit. Nothing to do with the remarks, but I think what the presentations speak for themselves. I think it's now good to go to the questions. Maybe to questions I always have problems if there are more than one question. I will do one, and then you can have another question, but not too many, because then I forget the first one.
Oh, I'm sorry. All right. Thanks. Yeah, it's Karel Zoete with Kepler Cheuvreux. Two questions, and the first one is a simple one. What's currently the return on capital under your definition?
It's about 6%.
Right. The second question is with regards to the value proposition. How you say, in any market, we want to be very price competitive or offer a lot of value. When you look to Austria and to Switzerland, I noticed that there's other big or sizable players that have relatively modest prices compared to your prices.
Yeah, I think you can compare that very well to Luxembourg. In Luxembourg, we had six or eight clubs, with the HealthCity brand, charging EUR 80 a month per member. We converted that to Basic-Fit, charging at the time, I think, EUR 19.99. Looking at those clubs, they were and are the most profitable clubs that we have.
All right. Thank you.
Robert Jan Vos, ABN AMRO. Two questions, if that's okay, René . First one is for Maurice. You used the first EUR 145 million of the new convertible for paying off the old convertible. But what is the short-term use of the rest of the proceeds from the new convertible? That's my first question.
Yeah. Of course, the 145 is due at 17th of June. That's in a few months. The rest will be refinancing of our current bank facilities. It will be part of refinancing RCF.
Which part? Because the bilateral is probably.
The most expensive one, so also the bilateral for the clever fit acquisition. Are you going to refinance that?
We will get back to you in the short term, because we actually are discussing that with our banks now.
Okay.
Yeah.
Thanks. My second one. It's pretty clear that franchise is an option or a real possibility for France. Can you remind us how you will prevent cannibalization between franchise and owned clubs?
Yes. Yes, I can answer this question. From the last Capital Markets Day, we said we could open 1,300, 1,400 clubs in France. The 500 clubs we have to open, and the remaining clubs are based on demographic analysis. We know exactly in which clubs we still have to open clubs. In case we see that we have to open a club in a white spot close to a direct Basic-Fit club, this is, as I explained in my presentation, we are also open to sell existing Basic-Fit clubs or clusters to future franchises to support them and to have no issues with the territorial exclusivity we should give them.
Hi. Jeremy Kincaid from Van Lanschot Kempen. First question, what does medium term mean when you want to hit low to mid-teens ROCE?
Yeah. Medium term for us is three to five years.
Okay. On your guidance for 2026, you had another bucket in the waterfall charts for potential M&A. Does that M&A relate to the potential acquisitions of clever fit 's gyms, or does that relate to something bigger?
Yeah, I think yes. The answer is yes. We are in discussion with some franchisees who want to sell their clubs. That's definitely part of it. I think we have always been looking for opportunities to grow in the market,, where we like for instance, Germany, when you look at it now, we have around 60 clubs. Because we have only 60 clubs, we're losing money because you have a big head office, so it's good to have the critical mass, and the critical mass is like 150 clubs-200 clubs. For us, it's very good if we can grow quickly to this number of 200 clubs in Germany. For that reason, if there's additional M&A possible, we are open to do that.
Clear. Then back to the mid-teens target for the return on capital. You obviously outlined the three different buckets, how you hope to grow that return on capital. Obviously, the franchise business is a very high-return-on-capital business. Do you think most of that uplift in the return on capital comes from the franchise business? Like, would it be 80%-90% of the change in the return on capital comes from that, or is a larger percentage going to come from organic or maybe inorganic?
Yeah, it's a good question, of course. What I shared in my presentation is that if you look at the near term, the key drivers are actually in our existing club estate. So that's actually what's really, really driving profitability, cash, EBITDA. It will take some time before the franchise revenue, franchise margins are really taking the lead. Let's say it like that. Of course, inorganic, that's a bit harder to predict because it depends if we're able to do an acquisition or not at the terms that we find acceptable.
Yeah. When you look at franchise for 2026 and 2027, it will be around 3% of turnover and 3% of EBITDA, so it will be very small. If you look at the long term, our goal is to have definitely more clubs in franchise than owned clubs. That is the plan for the next 10 years.
Maybe, in addition, just to have that in mind. We were able to acquire clever fit with approximately 450 franchise clubs. They worked on that for 20 years. That's not the way we are going to do it, just to understand how that goes. It took them 20 years to get to 450 clubs. We will go faster.
Maybe, to add to that, two and a half years ago, the last Capital Market Day, we announced to the group that we are thinking about franchise, and then we said we're going to have three options. We're going to build it from scratch, we're going to do it with somebody else, or we do an acquisition. I think two weeks after that, we got questions already. What are you going to do? Well, it takes some time to actually really figure that out. Are we going to do an acquisition? Are we going to do it with a partner, or are we going to build it ourselves? That takes time. Well, clearly we started at the beginning of 2025 on this clever fit transaction, visiting all the clubs, talking to the owner, eventually making a deal.
Transaction was done in November, and now four and a half months later, we get a lot of questions. How many clubs are you converting now this week? Well, it takes time. It's also about building trust with the franchisees. It's about talking, how they see their future and so on. It is maybe a bit slow also for us, but I think you should expect this to take time. This is not something that's going to change overnight. If you listen to where do we want to go, we want to be much bigger in amount of clubs in franchise than in owned clubs. We're not planning to get less clubs than what we're having now. We're planning to open 50, 60 clubs a year in the coming year.
We will continue to grow in our own clubs, but we expect to have more franchise clubs in time. It takes time, and we will take the time, because we do not want to start a cooperation with somebody that is questionable or is something that doesn't fit how we see the brand valuation. It will take time. I think that's important to know.
Hello, Anna Frontani from Berenberg. Sorry. To go back to the clever fit franchise acquisitions. When you're saying you want to acquire clever fit franchisees, are we talking about a couple of clubs? Do you have an idea how many that will be? And also connected to this, how is the franchisees conversion going from clever fit to Basic-Fit?
Yeah, like I just said, so it's going to take more time than just a few months. We just acquired it four and a half months ago, so we just don't have that answer right now. It's something some people own already for 20 years or 15 years or 10 years, so they first have to recover from the shock that their biggest competitor actually bought them. That takes time. You have multiple discussions, and then we'll come back. We'll have multiple discussions with them. We can't say really a number. It will be definitely quite some clubs that we are able to buy. In the contract that the franchisee have in all contracts, also the old contracts, it states that if they want to sell it, they have to offer it to us first.
If we don't agree on it, they can sell it to somebody else, and then we can still look and match it. Anyway, we are in a discussion with several franchisees. We cannot say a number, and we cannot say exactly what month, how many clubs. Once we do an acquisition or once we convert, we will, on a quarterly basis, come back to you.
Sorry. It's here. It's Marc Zwartsenburg, ING. First question, René , you just issued the bonds. You have maybe EUR 40 million, EUR 50 million left from the bond when you repay the remaining bonds. You look at M&A, and you probably need, let's say, 50 clubs in Germany extra on top of your own organic growth to come to that 150-200. You're also looking at Austria and Switzerland. What exactly do you have in mind in terms of war chest to do those acquisitions? How does that stack up with the pricing? Do you think that will be a challenge or will you get there?
Yeah, well, I think what we did now really helped us a lot because our three current Dutch banks. Who helped us prepare for this loan, if the old convertible bond would have been called completely? We had the EUR 330 million ready to pay back the old convertible bond. Of course, that was also a stretch for the three banks, a big amount on one customer. We have a very good relationship with the three Dutch banks, so they have been really supportive in our growth in the last 10 years. Of course, you do not want to have those banks that really help you also during Corona and that whole period to be fully stretched.
We're very happy that we can switch the old bond for a new bond, and then when there's a huge opportunity for an M&A, we can use the three Dutch banks again to help us do that acquisition. I think with what we have done last week, we are comfortable that if an opportunity arises, we have the money to do it, and we also have enough liquidity. We have a strong balance sheet as well. We are very happy that we did this step.
Is there a number you can give us in terms of what you have available or what you're allowed to do?
No, we have enough money to do acquisitions. We have enough money to buy 50, 80-something clubs. That is not a problem. I think when you look at the cash flow that we are generating this year is very good. Next year will be even better. The combination of growing EBITDA and not opening 100 or 200 clubs, that combination of course, works really well. We think the war chest will grow in time. We're not going to buy 100 clubs next week. We are in discussion with some clever fit franchisees. We are looking in the Dutch region to do some small acquisitions, small or mid-market chains. We are actually talking.
And that question-
Can also go to zero, right? We don't know. We're talking.
Yeah, a question for the happy CFO. In the fifth place, you had the capital allocation policy. What is your cutoff rate in terms of leverage ratio when you would consider capital returns? What do you think in terms of timelines when you've fulfilled the first four? When we could look at capital allocation?
Yeah. Thank you, Marc. Just to clarify your question, so that is the distinction between, let's say, further deleveraging and share distributions? That's what you're aiming at?
Yeah, exactly. When would you reach a certain point in your leverage ratio that you would consider a share buyback or a dividend or?
Yeah. What we said before, and that's still the case. We are pretty comfortable if we are between 1.5 and 2 net debt ratio. If we don't see any growth opportunities in the near term, and we have a net debt ratio of, let's say, 1.5, we might consider shareholder distributions. As we all have said in our presentations, if we look at the market, there are simply huge opportunities ahead of us. We are actually more looking at that growth now than at shareholder distributions in the near term. Yeah.
You're next.
Natasha Brilliant from UBS. Two questions from me. The first one, just coming back to the conversations with the franchisees. I think the narrative has shifted slightly about operating with the two brands. Has anything changed in terms of the discussions and the terms that you set out in December? What are the main hurdles that you're having as you have those discussions with franchisees? You talked about slightly lower royalties or marketing spend, maybe initially. Could you just tell us for how long you anticipate that and how much lower? That's my first question.
Yeah, it's not an ideal situation to do dual brands. Let that be clear. It will only be in one country, and that country is Germany. That's the only country where we will do a dual brand. When you look at the clever fit organization, how they were structured, they did the marketing completely locally. They gave a small amount of money to the franchisor, EUR 500 per month per club. With that EUR 6,000, the marketing was done, the website was maintained, app was maintained, the pictures were taken, the quarterly marketing ideas were delivered, and they did some advertisement. Of course, this is a very small amount. If you have, let's say, in Germany, 350 clubs x EUR 6,000, you cannot do a lot for that.
What we said to them, and that's what we changed as of May 1st, let's bring it back to the bare cost. What we need to use to improve the app and the website and the pictures and so we actually roll it back to EUR 300 per month. They're paying us now EUR 300 a month, and the EUR 200 they spend themselves locally. In the ideal world, we would never do this. We also told the franchisees to actually change that and spend EUR 40,000 a year on a club. Of course, you need to have everybody say yes to that, which is never going to happen. With so many clubs already in Germany being the clear market leader, if they would have spent more money on marketing, they would have been much more successful. We are in the current situation.
In the current situation, this is the best way we can do it. We will help them to the max. They are a big believer in local advertisement instead of national advertisement. We are a big fan of national advertisement, so that's a mismatch. Yeah, we also have a lot of franchisees. There's 160 franchisees, and some of them have one club already for 10 years. They're happy with it. It's in a small village. They love it, and it's great. They will continue being a clever fit club, and that's fine with us because if we get 5% with the clever fit label or 5% from the Basic-Fit label, we don't care. It's the same. For us, that is fine. The clever fit , of course, has the different pricing. It's one brand, but it's €80 or €70 or €30.
It's all over the place. For us, of course, to do national marketing, that's not very helpful. Doing it locally, I think it's been working for them already for five, 10, or 15 years. We let that go. We also have a lot of franchisees that want to convert to the Basic-Fit. We're still in negotiation about the contract, but maybe now they pay 4% or 5% and we want 7%. It is a process, and it takes time. I think once the first franchise clubs are open and they can see the results, I think then it will speed up, and then it will go faster. It will take time. You have to build the trust before you can actually convince people to do that.
Also, when we look at Basic-Fit, how we want to do the franchise, we would not like to have 160 franchisees for 400 clubs. That is too much work. What we would like to do is that a franchisee does at least 10 clubs, preferably 20, to roll it out. Otherwise, it will be a lot of questions, a lot of people you need to support somebody who's doing just one club. For us, it is not only about the clubs of clever fit . It was also about buying the knowledge. All the mistakes they made in the last 20 years. All the different contracts, that mistake we don't have to make anymore. The multiple is fine. We have the option to buy the club. They have to come back. That's all fine. We learn a lot.
That really, it is a very good team of people also. We have a lot of these 160 franchisees. There's a lot of really entrepreneurial people. I'm convinced that they will be very successful also with Basic-Fit in Germany. Overall, we're very happy, but it takes time, and I hope this was so very long answer.
That's helpful. Thank you. My last question is linked to that on the marketing. You talked a lot about the success story in Spain. Once you've got to the scale, sort of running those national advertising campaigns and the uplift in membership and EBITDA, was the spend on marketing above the group average in terms of sales in Spain? How should we think about that versus Germany? Are there any structural reasons why we shouldn't see a similar uplift over time in the membership and EBITDA like you saw in Spain?
I think the average was slightly higher because of course like we dial it down in the other markets where we are way more efficient. I think it was around 6% for Spain, but then still, having it slightly higher, but with the enormous results we saw in Spain, it's still very efficient, in terms of cost per acquisition, because that's ultimately what we look at. We believe that if we go for Germany, if we have the spend enough to be doing the marketing locally, for the whole market, we do firmly believe we will get the same results. Yeah.
All right ,now I think that we, I'm afraid we have...
Yeah, because René 's been waiting since the beginning.
You're the first one to raise his hand.
We all feel like he should.
Yeah.
Thanks, Richard. I will keep it short.
Thank you.
Senberg, Löwenstein. I basically have just one question about, if you look at the past, you were fully focused on organic growth, and it made sense. There was a lot of opportunity. If you listen today, the Basic-Fit flywheel is stronger than ever. That would basically mean that there's still the same opportunity, and yet we see more emphasis on inorganic growth. In that switch from only organic to inorganic, I was wondering, is that because relatively the organic growth, the risk/reward has maybe decreased somewhat? Or did the risk/reward of the inorganic increase? If that's the case, is that only to the Benelux or is that to other countries as well?
No, I think what it has to do with is that we had a lot of immature clubs. We had a lot of actual questions from you guys. Why is the result not coming? It is clear that we wanted to grow the market. We wanted to actually get more people active. For that, you have to invest. We did that investment. We did a big investment, and we opened 1,700 clubs. We spent more than EUR 2 billion building clubs. We wanted to show the results as well. We said, okay, let's slow down now, get more clubs mature. If you open, say, 60 clubs a year for the coming two, three years, that means that one or two years from now, we only have 120, let's say, of the 2,000 clubs immature.
You will see the EUR 150 million that we're actually missing, that has come to life, that 3,200 members on average is there. Because now it's 2,985, I think, members on April first. Once we reach the 3,200, once the immature clubs are all mature, then we will see a better result of around a EUR 150 million. The whole company looks completely different. Because now we actually every discussion we had in the last five years was about, yeah, where is the EBITDA staying? Where is it? Yeah, we are opening clubs and that costs money. For example, about the marketing, for example, in Germany, we're losing money. We only have 60 clubs, but we build a head office that can manage 100, 200 clubs, and we are building the brand.
That costs money. You lose a lot of money when a market doesn't have the size yet. Now we have the other five countries, we have the size. We said, "Okay, let's slow down. Let's fill the clubs, that they are mature, and then we have a better business." We have a better business. That's the reason why we actually choose this path.
All right. Now I'm trying to get back the stage. Mic far away. I would like to end the official part of the event today. Thank you very much for your time and presentation. I think they're really good and really insightful and painting a clear picture of the new era. For everyone here in the room, there are drinks upstairs and some wines, and you can also ask further questions. If you don't go out of this room to the right and to the right, you can go upstairs with the stairs. Everybody online, thank you very much for watching and hope to be in touch soon. Thank you very much.