Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us for Viva Leisure's FY 2025 Full-Year Results Presentation. I am joined today by our CFO, Mr. Kym Gallagher. This morning, we released our results announcement and investor presentation to the ASX. We are webcasting live, and this recording will also be available on our investor website later today. The agenda for today will follow a familiar structure. I'll begin with highlights and commentary on our performance. I'll hand over to Kym for the detailed financial review, then return to cover our strategic achievements and outlook. Before we begin, I want to set the tone for today. 2025 has been an outstanding year for Viva Leisure. There are no headwinds in front of us, only the open runway of opportunity.
Our business model is predictable, proven, and profitable, and our track record of meeting and exceeding guidance speaks for itself. This is my sixth year results presentation to our shareholders and my 21st year leading this remarkable business. In past presentations, I have often opened with a positive note, usually reminding everyone that what we offer is not discretionary spending, but a core part of people's lifestyle. This year, the results speak for themselves. Our performance is not only strong, it is a powerful demonstration of the resilience of our industry and the strength of Viva's strategy. We are firmly embedded in the lifestyle and experience economy, where people continue to prioritize their health and fitness regardless of broader economic conditions.
Today, we operate at a scale that delivers advantages others cannot match, with a record membership exceeding 620,000, a network approaching 500 locations, and a proprietary technology and payment platform serving both our brands and external partners. We are positioned for sustained high-margin growth well into the future. Our growth is deliberate, disciplined, and sustainable, and we see no reason for that trajectory to slow. This slide is the simplest way to show the scale and strength of our platform today. Before we look at the detail, I want to set the scene with an important change in how we present our results going forward. From 2025 onwards, Viva will not be reporting EBITDA on a pre-AASB 16 basis as our primary metric.
While we will continue to provide a reconciliation back to pre-AASB 16 numbers for transparency, we will, unless otherwise indicated, refer to EBITDA on a post-AASB 16 basis. This approach is consistent with how our listed peers, both within and outside our industry, present their results. It provides shareholders with a clearer comparison between Viva Leisure and other listed companies, while still allowing you to see the pre-AASB 16 reconciliation if you wish. Shareholders will be pleased to see that we finished the year with a statutory EBITDA of AUS 99.1 million, an increase of 25.6% on the prior corresponding period. This growth reinforces the strength of our business model, the scalability of our platform, and the consistent delivery against expectations. Further key highlights worth mentioning are our membership. We now have more than 620,000 members.
That is up strongly on last year and cements us as the second largest fitness operator in the country. Our network now comprises 491 open locations, compared to just 29 at IPO in 2019. That's a compound annual growth rate of more than 60% for six years. While size alone is impressive, it's the quality and diversity of our network that really sets us apart. Multiple brands, multiple market segments, and a technology and payments infrastructure that ties it all together. It's worth saying here, you don't get to these numbers without a model that works and without execution discipline. We have both. For the first time, total revenue has surpassed the AUS 200 million mark, reaching AUS 201.3 million, up 30% over 2024. That is a major milestone for Viva and a clear demonstration of our ability to grow at scale. Earnings per share also increased significantly, up 47.6% to AUS 0.0524.
NPAC continues its significant upward trend, finishing at AUS 5.2 million, an increase of 60.9% on the prior corresponding period. Adjusted free cash flow rose 6.8% to AUS 32.6 million. In February, we announced that our strategy had shifted from simply opening more locations to optimizing the network for greater profitability. Although that change came with only four months left in the financial year, we still managed to improve free cash. We expect this optimization strategy to really shine through this financial year and especially during 2027. Finally, EBITDA reached AUS 99.1 million, as previously mentioned, or AUS 45.9 million on the pre-AASB 16 basis, an exceptional increase of 29.7% over PCP. These results show both the growth in scale and the increasing efficiency of our operations. Moving to slide seven. This slide is all about discipline. We reinvested AUS 60.9 million for growth in 2025, more than double last year.
That includes AUS 36.9 million in strategic acquisitions and AUS 19.2 million in growth CapEx. Every dollar is deployed with purpose, and every acquisition strengthens our network, our member base, and importantly, our tech reach. We also return value to shareholders with a AUS 4.7 million on-market buyback. This balance between reinvestment and returns is a key part of our capital allocation discipline. We often get told that our growth is masked by acquisitions, given we have completed and integrated over 100 acquisitions in the past six years. However, this slide makes it clear that organic growth is alive and well at Viva. In 2025, we delivered strong revenue growth from multiple sources, not just acquisitions. Our corporate member base grew organically by more than 8%, with contributions from new greenfield sites and the full-year impact of prior year investments and openings.
The reality is that acquisitions are one of several growth levers for Viva, and we are equally adept at driving organic growth from our existing footprint, as highlighted by those numbers today. The combination of disciplined acquisition plus sustained organic performance is a big part of why our revenue reached AUS 211 million this year, again up 30% from the previous year. This chart makes one thing very clear: we are consistently growing our member base across the network. From just under 300,000 members three years ago to more than 620,000 today, with strong contributions from both corporate and franchise operations. The scale of this network is enormous. At 621,000 members, Viva touches the lives of almost 3% of Australians over the age of 15. That is a remarkable level of reach for any fitness business, and it underlines our position as a true leader in the market.
Here is the key point: every single one of these members pays Viva or a Viva franchisee every fortnight. That is the truest reflection of a membership base: committed members, regular transactions, and an ongoing relationship. It is a testament to our loyalty, our loyal brands, and how they inspire and the essential role they play in our members' lives. Scale is not just about numbers on a page; it is about the depth of management. In Viva's case, the engagement is strong, consistent, and growing. Our weekly visits by members now exceed 1.2 million. Take that in for a moment: 1.2 million member visits every single week. This slide is more than just numbers on a map. Since IPO, we have increased our locations sevenfold. The strategic approach here matters.
It is not just about opening clubs, it is about opening the right clubs in the right markets, and in some cases, acquiring and corporatizing franchise sites to strengthen control and margins. We have built a footprint that gives us competitive advantages in procurement, brand presence, and data-driven decision-making. It is also a captive membership base, supported by a high-quality location portfolio and brands that lead the market. This combination becomes a powerful opportunity for further deployment of our technology and the introduction of new options for members and franchisees. It is important to note the 60.2% compound annual growth rate we have achieved over the past six years. That growth includes nearly two years of operational interruptions and another two to three years of predictions that inflation and interest rates would kill off discretionary spend. The reality could not be further from the truth.
Our industry is resilient, our members are loyal, and our growth has been strong and sustained. This is a network that underpins everything else we do, from technology deployment to payments processing to cross-brand member offers. With that, I will now hand over to Kym, who will walk you through the next few slides covering our financial results, capital allocation, and balance sheet in detail.
Thanks, Harry. Firstly, as Harry has mentioned, this year we're transitioning from reporting on a pre-AASB 16 basis to a statutory or post-AASB 16 basis. The numbers presented throughout this section will be shown as post-AASB 16 unless otherwise noted. We've also worked possible adjusted prior periods to be displayed on a like-for-like basis. As Harry also mentioned, this is another year of very strong growth, with revenue, EBITDA, and net profit all up substantially on the prior year and at record levels. Importantly, that growth has come from a combination of organic expansion in our existing clubs, a disciplined greenfield rollout, and strategic acquisitions that strengthen our market position. We've also seen our high-margin technology payments, licensing, and services segment contribute meaningfully to both revenue and future earnings potential.
The scale we've achieved since listing is now providing us with a springboard to deliver enhanced products and services to our substantial member base, which will drive up average revenue per member. The projected slowdown in rollout of greenfield sites will allow us to concentrate on optimizing our existing network through operational efficiencies, while still allowing for significant growth across our franchise and tech divisions. In addition, it creates an opportunity to deleverage through improving cash flows while maintaining sensible debt levels. On slide 12 of the financial snapshot. This slide shows our revenue and our trajectory since 2020, our first full year as a listed company. On revenue, we've grown from AUS 40.9 million in FY 2020 to AUS 211.3 million in FY 2025. That's a substantial increase in just five years, representing a compound growth rate of 38.9% per annum.
EBITDA has followed a similar path, growing from AUS 15.7 million in FY 2020 to AUS 99.1 million this year, and that's a CAGR of 44.5%. These results aren't just about being bigger; they reflect our ability to integrate acquisitions effectively, create strong organic growth across our existing base and greenfield site rollouts, and manage costs efficiently while continuing to invest in growth initiatives. This slide shows the revenue growth bridge between FY 2024 and FY 2025. Revenue increased in real dollar terms at AUS 48.7 million, or 30% to AUS 11 million. What stands out is that AUS 19.3 million of the increase in health clubs' revenue was organic growth. That's from clubs that were already operating at the start of the year, plus greenfield sites reopened during FY 2025. That organic uplift represents the ongoing demand for our brands, as well as the benefits of our refurbishment and optimization programs undertaken in prior years.
Corporate membership organic growth of 8.49% from existing locations and new greenfield sites demonstrates our underlying business momentum remains very strong, even before we layer on the acquisition growth. Acquisitions, new club openings, and the continued ramp-up of Viva Pay and other technology revenue streams add to the rest of the uplift, providing a strong balance of recurring base growth and expansion-driven revenue. Breaking down that revenue into segments, health clubs sits at AUS 187.5 million and is up 27.1%. This growth was driven by increased membership and price improvements, as well, obviously, from contributions from new sites and acquisitions. The franchise division at AUS 7.9 million, which is down slightly on last year due to the planned removal of third-party payment rebates as we transition to Viva Pay.
This is a short-term dip as the launch of Viva Pay sets us up for much larger long-term gains as we transition the BFS and World Gym Australia businesses across to Viva Pay. Technology, payments, licensing, and services is now AUS 14.8 million, up 127.7%. This segment includes our payments platform, licensing, and various technology and services revenues. It is our highest margin division and is scaling rapidly. It will be a key earnings driver moving forward. The trend here is the diversification of the revenue base toward higher margin technology-led income streams through both direct and indirect average revenue per member initiatives. Moving on to the profit and loss. As Harry has pointed out, a lot of these results already, however, they're worth repeating. Revenue was AUS 211 million, up 30% against the prior year, a milestone for us as we've now crossed the AUS 200 million mark.
Statutory EBITDA grew 25.6% to AUS 99.1 million after adjustments, and while noted on this page, not noted on this page, pre-AASB 16 EBITDA was AUS 45.9 million, up 29.7%. We expect to derive operational efficiencies moving forward as we tighten our aggressive growth stance, which will drive margins higher. We also grew normalized NPAT to AUS 7.3 million, while statutory NPAT was AUS 5.2 million, up 60.9% on the prior year. If we look at the pre-AASB 16 NPAT, last year we reported AUS 10.6 million, while this isn't shown on the slide, and on a like-for-like basis, this year it is AUS 12.6 million. It's up approximately 19% on prior corresponding period. Looking at the balance sheet, the asset base increased significantly as we invested aggressively in acquisitions, strategic investments, and greenfield sites.
Borrowings increased to AUS 100.5 million, up from AUS 60.6 million, which is quite a large growth number, but we predominantly utilized the debt that we had under the new CBA facilities to fund the acquisitions and growth projects. On that, we currently have no need to draw any additional debt for the foreseeable future. Our new bank facility arrangements include a cash sweep mechanism, which means that excess free cash flows above certain leverage thresholds will automatically be paid to reduce debt, which we expect to occur during FY 2026. This, combined with our strong cash generation capabilities, means we expect to see a deleveraging over the coming 12 months. Looking at the cash flows, cash flows from operations increased by nearly 18% year -on -year, reflecting the strength of our recurring revenue model.
As mentioned on the previous slide, we invested heavily at AUS 29.5 million in property, plant, and equipment, AUS 30.2 million in acquisitions, and AUS 6.6 million in strategic investments. It was a very heavy capital program across the year. In addition, we aggressively undertook a share buyback program, creating an EPS benefit for our shareholders, and despite this elevated investment, maintained a reasonable closing cash balance. The cash position reflects our active deployment of capital for growth, and we believe we now have the scale of clubs and members, infrastructure, and capabilities to drive our planned revenue initiatives. This will create operational efficiencies and better cash flow returns in the future. Just a quick note on the share buyback. As mentioned, we undertook a fairly aggressive share buyback program during the year.
We acquired around 3.5% of issued capital at what we believe are very attractive valuations relative to the underlying asset value and earnings potential of the business. This program delivered immediate accretive benefits to earnings per share, while demonstrating our confidence in the company's prospects and our commitment to returning value to shareholders. It is worth noting that we executed this program alongside acquisitions, organic growth in site numbers, and technology investments, demonstrating that our capital allocation framework balances the return of capital to shareholders without compromising our growth agenda. Here's a more detailed, on page 20, detailed analysis of the cash flow. This breaks down the movement in cash for the year and demonstrates the underlying strength of the cash-generated business model. Net receipts from customers increased to AUS 100.3 million, up from AUS 79.7 million, representing a 25.9% increase.
Operational cash flows of AUS 38.2 million is up 10.4% on last year. Free cash flow before growth CapEx was AUS 32.6 million, up from AUS 30.5 million. This is growth of 6.8%. This is a crucial metric showing our underlying cash generation before discretionary growth investments. During the year, we spent AUS 36.9 million on strategic acquisitions that strengthened our market position and expanded our tech opportunities. We invested AUS 19.2 million in growth CapEx, which is new clubs, refurbishments, and technology upgrades. We invested AUS 6.6 million in strategic partnerships that extend our reach and open new revenue channels. Finally, we returned AUS 4.7 million to shareholders through the ongoing on-market buyback. This mix shows that we're not reliant on a single growth lever. We're building a sustainable, multi-platform growth strategy. Thank you. I'll now hand back to Harry to cover the outlook and strategic priorities.
Thank you, Kym. Let's now talk about where Viva is today and where we are heading. We are a clear industry leader with a multi-brand, multi-segment portfolio that allows us to serve the full spectrum of the market, from boutique to big box, from corporate-owned to franchise. Our scale is now a competitive advantage in itself, enabling procurement leverage, cross-selling opportunities, and the ability to deploy technology and payment solutions across a vast and growing network. We are positioned for long-term growth. This is an important slide because it shows the predictability of our business model and the ability to deliver exactly what we say we will. We exceeded the guidance we issued earlier this year, which we based on quarterly run rate. With a business that grows month after month, we believe a quarterly run rate forecast is the best tool to measure success.
For Q4 2025, we guided to AUS 56 million of revenue. We achieved AUS 57 million. We guided to quarterly EBITDA of AUS 12.5 million. We achieved AUS 12.7 million. For reference, that equates to a post-AASB 16 EBITDA of AUS 26.5 million for the quarter. Based on our Q4 run rate performance, if you analyze those numbers, they provide a base case for 2026 of AUS 50.8 million on a Plus Fitness pre-AASB 16 basis, or AUS 106 million using our new post-AASB 16 reporting approach. That represents a 7% increase in EBITDA as a base case. Why do I call it a base case? Because our measure of success is net member growth. We do not report how many members we sign up because that is not what matters. What matters is that each and every club every day has more members than the day before, until it reaches what we consider capacity.
That is the true measure of success. Importantly, this AUS 106 million annualized run rate excludes any upside from the maturation of recently opened locations, from new clubs we will open, and we have four to five set to open before Christmas, or from the upside available through our extensive network of products and services. This is why we can say with confidence there are no headwinds in front of us, only the opportunity. When you look at the numbers on the previous slide and ask why this performance is sustainable, the answer is here on slide 23. Viva is now recognized as an industry leader with a multi-brand, multi-segment portfolio that reaches almost 3% of Australians over 15. We operate in every major segment in the fitness industry, from boutique studios to large format clubs, and we do it through a mix of corporate-owned and franchise.
This diversity gives us resilience through all economic cycles, and it gives us multiple growth levers. It means we are not reliant on a single brand, segment, or geography to deliver results. We also have a proven scalable business model. We have executed over 100 acquisitions in the past six years, integrated them seamlessly, and driven organic growth on top. That track record is unmatched in our sector. Our capital allocation, we are disciplined, investing in opportunities with the highest returns, whether that is optimizing existing sites, selective acquisitions, or deploying our proprietary technology and payments platform across a growing footprint. Perhaps most importantly, and the message we are making today to our shareholders and investors, is we have no headwinds in front of us. Consumer demand for health and fitness continues to grow. Our brands lead the markets, and our technology advantage gives us additional high-margin revenue streams.
Our data indicates that our biggest segment is Gen Z, and as these members age, their children follow their parents' habits and live a healthy lifestyle. This in itself tells us, when we look at the data, that the next five and ten years are going to be huge. This is why our quarterly run rate guidance is not a ceiling, it is a base from where we can grow. I want to pause here and connect this slide to something we recently released, the Viva story. I urge anyone who has an interest in our industry or the Viva business to grab themselves a copy from the Viva Leisure website. It really does paint a great picture. We plan to provide an update to the Viva story at the beginning of each calendar year.
We have included this slide today to remind shareholders of the scale and reach of our business. This is not just about gyms. It is about a broad, integrated range of offerings, from membership to transactional products, licensing, and strategic investments. We call this the Vivaverse. We are not, as part of this results release, going to target any one product individually. That is intentional. The real advantage lies in the breadth and diversity of what we offer, an advantage that continues to be unmatched in our industry. We have capitalized well on this breadth in the past, but as a management team, we really see 2026 and 2027 as the years where this will truly take off. The scale we have built, combined with the diversity of our portfolio, positions us perfectly to capture that growth.
These next two years will be about unlocking the full potential of what we have created, expanding cross-selling opportunities, rolling our technology at scale, and diversifying revenue streams in ways that single brand or single segment operators simply cannot match. An example of this is that we are very close to formal sign-off on a licensing agreement for our proprietary Viva Door Access solution. Under this agreement, a third-party industry software company with over 1,500 studios and gyms worldwide will license and integrate our door solution into their software, creating ongoing licensing fees and royalties back to Viva. This provides us with a high-return, low-risk software and hardware model. When we listed this business in 2019, we referred to ourselves as a technology-focused health club group. At the time, many people did not quite understand what we meant.
With a technology and payments business now generating over AUS 14 million in recurring revenue and about to add licensing to that mix, I think it is starting to make sense. In short, the reach and integration you see here are not just impressive; they are strategic. The most exciting phase of value creation, in our view, is still ahead of us. Our health club and gym business is not just what we do or who we are. It is the engine that drives the rest of our high-margin, fast-growing businesses with a captive market that only grows stronger over time. This slide is not just a snapshot of where we are today. It is also a window into the significant long-term potential of the brands we operate. Right now, we have 172 locations already secured for future opening. These are not vague opportunities or wishlist sites.
They are real, with a signed contract and deposits paid. Of these, only seven are corporate locations. The rest are high-value, low-capital, and low-risk franchise sites where franchisees have already made a commitment and are actively working to bring these clubs to life. The fact that franchisees are willing to invest their own capital to open 165 of these locations is the strongest possible endorsement of our brands and their performance. Each site, once open, creates an immediate and recurring revenue stream for Viva and our part-owned investments without requiring any capital deployment from us. The benefits do not stop there. Every new location also drives additional revenue from our technology and payments business by default. As the network grows physically, our high-margin, scalable revenue streams grow alongside it. I'd now like to close with my last slide before going into Q&A.
Our strategy is now focused on the big picture. Whilst it is important that we continue to maintain and grow a profitable business, we are targeting a more profitable return from the network we have already built. That means doing more of the same, but doing it smarter with an even greater emphasis on margin and value creation. We are also excited about the further technology products we have rolling out to our corporate and extended network in the coming months, which will strengthen both revenue and engagement. We have no headwinds in front of us, and even when there were, this business excelled. Health and fitness is not a discretionary purchase for our members. It is part of their lifestyle, and that resilience is one of the defining strengths of Viva.
With more than 620,000 members, AUS 1.2 million visits to our facilities each and every week, and a growing club network, we are exceptionally well positioned for 2026 and beyond. When we set targets, we deliver on them. Our track record proves it, and our strategy for the years ahead builds on that same discipline and focus. The years ahead will be about unlocking even greater value from our scale, diversity, and capability we now have in place. Thank you for your time, and I'd now like to open for questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Nick McGarrigle at Barrenjoey . Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Good news. Maybe just to start off with on the tech revenues, they're off close to 130%. Just what the run rate for that is into next year on the kind of expansion of Viva Pay, some of the tech, I guess, trying to get a sense of what that growth might look like into next year, given you kind of haven't really leveraged that across the whole franchise network.
Yeah, okay. Thanks for that question. Tech revenue is made up from a few things, or TPLS we call it now. Essentially, we charge franchisees for onboarding members onto the platform. Currently, that is just Plus Fitness. World Gym Australia is in transition to start moving onto our platform prior to going to Viva Pay. As those members come on board, and we haven't finalized the full number, to put an indication on it, once that comes on board, World Gym Australia signs approximately 15,000 members a month. We will charge somewhere between AUS 5-AUS 7 to activate those members each month that join on the platform. Once that comes on board, that adds probably close to another AUS 1 million in revenue, which is high-margin revenue. There's no cost associated with that. That's one part of it.
Viva Pay for World Gym Australia won't come in until April 2027, so that's the following year. We'll start to generate, as I said, technology fees from onboarding members and using our door access systems, our member online joining, and the clubs using our data and analytics platforms. We've also got a couple of other technology platforms to launch. In terms of numbers, we're not really comfortable giving those out at the moment. Vending machine network is growing. That falls into that segment as well. We've got close to 150 machines deployed. We've identified some new technologies, smoothie machines that will provide a new service into clubs with no staffing. We see upside on that, plus the actual vending machine network will continue to grow. Our digital signage network falls under this. We've previously had 400 screens. We've now got 650 screens in the network and growing.
We're looking at ways how we deploy that down into the franchise network and share with our franchisees some of that revenue by eyeballs. We're commercializing our Plus Fitness and Club Lime radio by doing a limited trial of advertising on that. It now has a captive market, as I said, of 1.2 million members. That includes the World Gym Australia members, but it's a significant amount of people in clubs listening to our music in the background. We're pretty excited where that tech revenue is going to go. 2026 will form the basis of it. You'll see an uplift in that. The licensing fees I talked about as well on technology will add to that. The 2027 year, once it adds Viva Pay into World Gym Australia, and technically, if we can get BFS onto that by then as well, it's a slightly more complicated approach for them.
That in itself is another AUS 5 million-AUS 6 million of margin on that division. Does that all make sense?
Yeah, that's really helpful. That's good to understand. I guess there's a comment in the presentation and the outlook commentary around looking for efficiencies across the network as well as focusing on the return on investor capital and quality over quantity. Can you just give us a sense of what that looks like in practice with the existing network of clubs and within those clubs on the cost base?
Yeah, look, we didn't raise the buzzword of the time at the moment, which is AI, but you know, like any other business in this, we're using a lot of that technology in the back end. As that rolls out into the front-of-house type things, it creates opportunities for cost savings for our business, but also revenue opportunities. We have some pretty cool features that we'll launch in our Club Lime app that we're aiming to have behind the paywall at some point. As that rolls out and has, you know, access to 600,000 members, it becomes pretty significant. I lost my train of thought.
In other initiatives, Nick, as well, we're looking at, I guess, optimizing the network of clubs, the corporate clubs as well. As leases roll up, we tend to, you know, historically and moving into the future, we'll look at whether, you know, they're contributing to the network at the level that we expect them to. If those are borderline and we've thrown marketing dollars and resources at it and they're not quite performing the way that we should, we're probably going to just close them. Instead, concentrate our resources to those that are mid-level to high-performing clubs, such that when we get less cost, the margin will go up because we're generating more membership and more revenues in the high-performing clubs. Items like rent will just disappear because we'll close the clubs. There's that level of optimization as well.
Yeah, we did a call out in the appendix where we said on the health clubs side of things, we're forecasting a near net zero growth on the number of clubs because they'll optimize out. Remembering that when we listed, you know, we had some strong growth in 2020, 2021. Those leases come up for renewal now, so they become a decision point because most leases for us are five years or 10 years. There are leases coming up and they become a decision point for us of whether we optimize them out of the network, merge them, renew them, that sort of thing is what we're referring to.
The kind of 201 corporate club count now is potentially kind of only up modestly with some of the rollouts you've got earmarked offset by closures.
Yeah, we're still going through those numbers. We actually sit at 203 today, and we have four new clubs to open before Christmas. By Christmas, we'll be 207, less whatever else we expect to drop off. Over the course of the year, I don't expect that, like previous years, to be adding 25. I think somewhere between five and ten, and depending on when any opportunities come for any drop-offs, we'll look at those if they make financial sense.
Maybe on M&A and franchise buybacks within the corporate club network, are you kind of pushing the price on that as well?
M&A on franchise buybacks, the thing is we have first right of refusal. Generally, if it's a nice site, we'll buy it. It just depends on the broader market. We can always push back and say to a franchisee, yep, go and go to the market and try and sell it. If they get a really good price, we'll introduce a new franchisee into the network. That has benefits for us as well. We'll look at it. We're pretty happy. I think when we bought Plus Fitness, we said we'd be happy with 5% of the network, which at the time would have been about owning about 10 clubs. We now own 33 Plus Fitnesses, so we've exceeded that.
I don't know how much more we want to do because the approach now with the capital light model and 170 franchises across those three brands to grow, we'll just sit back and capitalize on the technology and payments. That platform is built, it scales, it works, and it provides high margin. That's probably more our focus than getting the clubs, the corporate clubs, to 250 or something.
Yep, fair enough. I mean, I guess that's good because it likely leads to, if you kind of exclude growth CapEx where you are expanding, it obviously means free cash flow starts to improve and you're harvesting a higher return on invested capital on that, on the network.
Absolutely, that is the target.
Cool, I'll let someone else ask some questions. Thanks.
Your next question comes from James Bisinella at Unified Capital Partners. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi guys, congrats on the result. Plenty of ground covered already in terms of the questions, some good ones there and good color from you guys. Just maybe one from me, just around the competitive and promotional environment, maybe specifically around HVLP. I know you're not quite there in terms of that part of the market, but we've seen some expansion there. We've also seen some peers under pressure in that sector. I mean, any comments on that and any comments on what you're seeing in terms of pricing and churn across the network?
Pricing and churn have remained consistent for us. We're constantly reviewing pricing. We do price reviews to certain segments of our membership base quite regularly, sometimes 2x-3x a year. We pick segments of them depending on what's happening. If a club is refurbed, the retail price goes up, so then we increase the price for members. In terms of HVLP, we're not officially in HVLP, but we do have what we would consider HVLP sites. We opened one two and a half weeks ago in WA, Forestdale, WA, and that has exceeded our expectations. In excess of 2,500 members have joined that club in the first two and a half weeks and it is growing. We look at that space, but as we've always said, we don't try and find a product and put it into a market.
We look at a market and then work out which one of our products best fits in that market. We flipped between when we secured the Forestdale site, which brand, which price point, etc., should fit in there. We use our data and analysis to try and work out where it goes. From an HVLP perspective, we're in that space. We just haven't done it under what we assumed we were going to do under a different brand, which we referred to as Zoo originally a couple of years ago. They've still fallen under the Club Lime brand. In terms of competitors in the space, there are some competitors in the HVLP space that are under stress at the moment. I think that's because they're not even in the HVLP space. I think they're below the HVLP price.
They're selling at silly prices, which is just not sustainable, and that's just caught up with them. In terms of the rest of the competitive market, we're not seeing much movement. There are one or two players in the market. We did have a slide in this presentation, which was pretty interesting, and it showed the largest provider in the market, Anytime, with just over 600 locations now, us with just short of 500. The next operator under 300, the next operator around 200, the next 10 operators have 400. You can see the scale there and the difference. The first four has 600, 500, 300, 200, and then the next 10 have a total of 400. We're pretty comfortable about positioning in the market. The fact that we've got 170 franchises sold already will grow our network and our other businesses.
Okay, great. That all makes sense. On the point of free cash, good to see strong growth coming through there. In terms of growth CapEx, I think it was AUS 19 million in FY 2025. Can you give us a rough feeling of how that should look into 2026, assuming it's directionally lower than that number?
Yeah, we've got budgeted or forecast for FY 2026 internally about AUS 11 million in the growth CapEx space. That obviously doesn't include, you know, CapEx for tech and whatnot. On a like-for-like comparison, we see it as being somewhere between AUS 7 million-AUS 8 million lower than what we spent in FY 2025.
You generated, I think it was circa AUS 33 million of free cash. Assuming that'll grow next year, plus another AUS 7 million -AUS 8 million on lowering growth CapEx, it should be a higher number. In terms of use of capital looking forward, what's the, you know, you've got the buyback ongoing, et cetera. What's the kind of messaging around what we could see there?
I think it creates, like, I mean, the additional free cash flow creates opportunities for us. We need to assess those as we move through the year as far as, you know, do we continue things like share buybacks and do we look at paying down debt or other capital management opportunities? We just need to assess that moving forward. The runway that we've got in front of us as far as greenfield sites, capital outlay, we will look at improving some of the sites that are, as I mentioned before, as part of the optimization process. As you'd be aware, we ran a refurb program across 2023-2024, which was 21 sites and 27 sites respectively.
We still see a handful of those come up every year where we think, you know, if you throw somewhere between AUS 300,000-AUS 500,000 into these clubs, they'll produce an ROI of 100% within a year. We see those opportunities and that's probably where we'll concentrate any CapEx spend moving forward as opposed to now rolling out greenfield sites. That said, if we see opportunities, we'll continue to grow organically through greenfield site rollout as well.
Okay, that all makes sense. Thanks for taking my question, guys. Cheers.
Thanks, James. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Billy Boulton at Morgans. Please go ahead.
Hi, Harry and Kym. I just wanted to go back to the next question with the tech growth. I get there's a lot going on. I was just hoping to get any sort of color on what sort of growth rate we should extrapolate into FY 2026, given you've had such a strong year in FY 2025.
Yeah, that's the magic crystal ball number. I mean, IT, we're rolling out. We've got, like I said, apps to launch behind paywalls and stuff. We need to look at uptake and stuff. Look, our target is to get another AUS 2 million or AUS 3 million minimum on top of that this year. You know, licensing could take off. We're very close, as I said, to signing a hardware licensing and software licensing on door access. That's a little bit out of our control, but we've got an initial order of 100 units from that agreement. As that rolls out to that and other software companies, that part can grow. Vending machines, as I said, is going to grow. Digital signage network is going to grow, so we pick up more advertisers out of that.
It's hard to pinpoint a number on that, and we've done that in the past, and it becomes a little bit incremental. One plus one plus one plus one plus one is not the messaging we're trying to put out this year. It's all about there are no headwinds. Look at what we've done. Look at what we'll continue to do. I don't think the increase this year is a one-off. We will get increases year on year on year on that, especially as I've tried to highlight as well as franchisees open. The Viva Pay business is making AUS 5.5 million of that AUS 14 million, and that's on 170 franchises because 30 of them are corporate. We've got another 170 to add on top of that that still haven't opened.
Then we've got the 55 or 56 World Gym Australia sites and then the other 50, 60 BFS sites that are still open. You can see the runway and how they drop will be pretty exciting, but hard to pinpoint.
Yeah, no, that's helpful. It's just, you know, the first big year, it's sort of hard to understand what the sustainable growth rate sort of is. Yeah, no, that's helpful. Thanks, Harry. The other question I just had was, am I reading between the lines right? You've got about seven corporate gyms you plan to open, but you'll probably offset a lot of that with a lot of some closures this year. Net net, you'll probably end up at around a similar level of corporate gyms at the end of FY 2026.
Yeah, I think there'll be a slight increase, but we did put in the, I think, the third or fourth last slide that, you know, don't expect significant increase like last year. It's like we're aiming for a sort of a net new zero. That means we're not going to go close sites purposely. You know, like I said, in 2020, 2021, 2022, we opened and acquired a lot of sites. They all come up for a lease renewal now. It becomes a decision point when they come up in 2025, 2026, which is roughly now. Some of the smaller sites, like the Hiit Republics, our data suggests, you know, they do okay, but they do much better when they're physically located next door or inside a Club Lime. Look, we might move some of those. We might repurpose some space in Club Limes. We may close some of those.
What you'll see is that sort of action and response.
Yeah. Kim, any help next year with how you're thinking about DNA and that interest in your lease principal repayments?
I mean, the good thing about signing out a CapEx program is that obviously D&A starts to decrease as well. You know, we see, if you consider this year, and obviously in the financial statements, it's not necessarily separated between the lease properties as well as plant and equipment, but you're talking about a AUS 20 million appreciation charge. Next year, you would think it'd probably be about 10% up on that. As far as interest is concerned, we have no plans, as I mentioned before, to increase our debt across the next 12 months. We have no need to do it. In a reducing interest rate environment, I guess one of the benefits of having the debt balance that we do, with three interest rate cuts, then obviously there's a substantial impact on the earnings per share and NPAT number.
That, coupled with cash sweeps, coupled with net debt improving, we would see the net interest cost going down as well.
Thank you.
Your next question is a follow-up from Nick McGarrigle at Barrenjoey . Please go ahead.
Good day. I think I've forgotten what I was going to ask, so I'll relinquish my time.
Okay. Thank you, Nick. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Konstantinou for closing remarks.
Thanks, Drew. Again, the messaging we're trying to put out today is there are no headwinds. We've had fantastic revenue, top line growth, EBITDA continues to grow in line, our free cash flow is going up. Everything for this business is going in the right direction. We've tried to paint a picture of secured franchise locations, 170 of them. It's pretty significant. We've never seen numbers like that in this business in the past. The complementary businesses of technology and Viva Pay will absolutely start to kick as this is rolled out across the network and potentially outside the network. We're pretty excited of how things look moving forward. Just want to say thanks to everyone for their support, and Kym and I are available if anyone wants any one-on-ones and has specific questions.
Thanks. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.