Club Pilates FDD Analysis
2025 Franchise Disclosure Document — 849 Qualified Studios, Full Quartile Data
Item 19 — Quartile Revenue Breakdown
Club Pilates is one of the few boutique fitness franchises that publishes a full quartile breakdown in its Item 19 financial performance representation. The 2025 FDD reports calendar-year 2024 gross revenue for 849 Qualified Studios — franchisee-owned locations that were open for the entirety of 2024, excluding non-traditional venues and the separately reported Expanded format.
That sample covers the majority of the system. With over 800 studios in the pool, the quartile bands give a prospective buyer something most franchise FDDs do not: a realistic picture of where a studio is likely to land, not just the average that top performers pull upward.
| Cohort | Studios | Average Revenue | Median Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| All Qualified | 849 | $984,270 | $969,022 |
| Top Quartile (Q1) | ~212 | $1,305,116 | $1,261,234 |
| Second Quartile (Q2) | ~212 | $1,051,803 | $1,048,027 |
| Third Quartile (Q3) | ~213 | $894,131 | $894,375 |
| Bottom Quartile (Q4) | ~212 | $686,457 | $713,766 |
Source: Club Pilates 2025 FDD, Item 19. “Qualified Studios” = franchisee-owned, open all of calendar year 2024, excluding non-traditional and Expanded format locations. Revenue figures are gross revenue, 2024.
Revenue Distribution — Visual
What “Qualified Studio” Means
The 849-studio sample excludes corporate-owned locations, studios that opened partway through 2024, non-traditional venues (airports, hotels, corporate campuses), and the separately reported Expanded format (studios with more than 12 reformers).
This is a survivorship-filtered sample — it only includes studios that made it through the full year. A studio that opened in March 2024 and closed in November would appear in neither the qualified pool nor the closure statistics for that year. Keep that in mind when reading the averages.
The 1.9× Spread
The ratio between the top-quartile average ($1,305,116) and the bottom-quartile average ($686,457) is 1.9×. That means a Q1 Club Pilates studio generates roughly twice the gross revenue of a Q4 studio.
In isolation, 1.9× might seem like a wide spread. It is not — not by franchise standards. For comparison, Goddard School’s Item 19 shows a top-to-bottom quartile spread of 11.2×. Childcare centres have enormous fixed-cost leverage (a building, a staff, a licence — whether the rooms are full or not), so the distance between a packed school and a half-empty one is measured in multiples, not percentages.
Club Pilates operates with a lighter cost structure — a leased studio, a handful of instructors, and reformer equipment — so the ceiling is lower but the floor is higher relative to the average. A bottom-quartile studio is not in free-fall; it is running at about 70% of the system average. That tighter band reflects a business where the inputs (rent, labour, equipment) do not vary as dramatically between high-performing and low-performing units.
What the Spread Tells a Buyer
A narrow spread means the location and execution matter, but they do not make or break you to the same degree as in a childcare franchise. A Q4 Club Pilates studio still generates $686K in gross revenue — the question is whether that top line covers the cost structure in your specific market. At a combined fee load of roughly 12% (see below), approximately $82K of that goes back to the franchisor before you pay rent, labour, or debt service.
The median ($969,022) sitting close to the mean ($984,270) is another sign of a symmetric distribution. There is no long tail of underperformers dragging the average down or a small cluster of outliers pulling it up. Most studios land near the middle.
Fee Load Analysis
Club Pilates charges a combined ongoing fee load of approximately 12% of gross revenue, broken into three components. This is the slice of every dollar that goes back to the franchisor and its required funds before you pay rent, instructors, or debt service.
Per the 2025 FDD. The local advertising requirement is approximately 2% and may vary by market.
In Dollar Terms
At the system-wide average of $984,270 in gross revenue (2024, per the 2025 FDD), the fee load works out to roughly:
- Royalty (8%): ~$78,742
- Brand development fund (2%): ~$19,685
- Local advertising (~2%): ~$19,685
- Total fee load (~12%): ~$118,112
That leaves approximately $866,158 in gross revenue after franchise fees, from which you pay rent, instructor wages, equipment leases, insurance, utilities, and debt service. Our analysis of the fee load waterfall traces every dollar from gross revenue to owner take-home.
Cross-Brand Fee Comparison
| Brand | Royalty | Brand / Ad Fund | Combined Load |
|---|---|---|---|
| Club Pilates | 8% | 2% brand + ~2% local | ~12% |
| Primrose Schools | 7% | 2% brand + 1% ad + 1% co-op | 11–13% |
| School of Rock | 8% | 3% brand + up to 3% ad | Up to 14% |
| Kiddie Academy | 7% | 2% brand | ~9% |
Sources: each brand’s most recent FDD filing. Ranges reflect variation in local advertising requirements or co-op contributions.
Club Pilates sits in the middle of this range. Kiddie Academy’s 9% is the lightest, School of Rock’s potential 14% the heaviest. The practical difference on a $984K top line is roughly $30K–$50K per year between the cheapest and most expensive fee structures — real money, but not the factor that determines whether a studio is viable. Rent, instructor costs, and membership volume matter more.
Expanded Studios — A Separate Cohort
The 2025 FDD breaks out a second cohort: Expanded Studios, defined as locations with more than 12 reformers. These 11 studios are excluded from the 849-studio qualified pool and reported separately.
Their numbers are materially different:
- Average revenue: $1,477,615 (2024, per the 2025 FDD)
- Median revenue: $1,364,420 (2024, per the 2025 FDD)
- Count: 11 studios
The Expanded average is 50% above the standard-format system average of $984,270. That gap reflects the additional class capacity: more reformers means more members per class, which means more revenue per hour of studio time without proportionally more instructor cost.
But the sample is tiny. Eleven studios is not enough to draw conclusions about what an Expanded format “typically” earns. These may be the system’s best markets with the most experienced operators — the kind of location that would outperform in any format. The higher buildout cost (more reformers, more square footage, higher rent) also means more capital at risk and a longer break-even runway.
For a buyer considering the Expanded format, the takeaway is that the revenue ceiling is demonstrably higher, but the sample is too small and too self-selected to treat the $1.48M average as an expectation. Build your model on the standard-format quartiles unless your specific site, market, and capital structure support the larger footprint.
Standard vs. Expanded
Unit Growth — 2021 to 2024
Club Pilates has been one of the fastest-growing franchise systems in boutique fitness. The FDD filings track the trajectory:
| Year | Franchised Units | Net Change | Growth Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 660 | — | — |
| 2022 | 753 | +93 | 14.1% |
| 2023 | 868 | +115 | 15.3% |
| 2024 | 1,029 | +161 | 18.5% |
Source: Club Pilates FDD filings (Item 20), 2022–2025. These are net changes — openings minus closures — not gross openings.
Three things stand out. First, the pace is accelerating — 93 net new studios in 2022, 161 in 2024. Second, the system crossed 1,000 franchised units in 2024, a threshold only a handful of boutique fitness brands have reached. Third, these are net figures, meaning they already account for closures. The gross opening count is higher, offset by studios that shut down or were terminated.
For a prospective franchisee, rapid growth is a double-edged signal. It means strong consumer demand and a proven model that lenders and landlords recognise. It also means territory is filling quickly, your nearest Club Pilates competitor may be another Club Pilates, and the franchisor’s attention is spread across a growing base. Understanding what the territory protection in your franchise agreement actually guarantees — and what it does not — becomes critical at this scale.
Key Takeaways
- The system average is $984K, but the quartile you land in determines viability. A Q1 studio earning $1.3M has a very different financial reality from a Q4 studio at $686K — both are paying the same fee load and similar rent. Build your model at Q3 ($894K) and see if the numbers work before assuming you will outperform the median.
- The 1.9× spread is narrow by franchise standards. Club Pilates has a tighter performance band than most franchises we cover, which means less upside variance but also a higher floor. The business model constrains both extremes.
- The ~12% fee load is middle-of-the-road. At the system average, you send roughly $118K back to the franchisor annually. That is not exceptional in either direction, but it is $118K that comes out before rent, wages, and debt service.
- Expanded format shows higher revenue but is not generalisable. Eleven studios is an anecdote, not a dataset. The 50% revenue premium over standard format is real for those specific locations; whether it holds for yours depends on factors the FDD does not isolate.
- The system is growing fast. Over 1,000 franchised units and accelerating net growth means territory is filling. Ask about encroachment protections before you sign.