How multi-location fitness brands keep quality consistent during growth

Opening a second (or tenth) location is a massive win.

It means what you’ve built is working. The brand, the experience, the results – it all clicks. But replicating that success somewhere new? That’s where things get interesting.

Scaling isn't just about standard operating procedures and training manuals (though those help). It’s about capturing the essence of your brand and replicating it with success without overlooking local nuance.

When you get it right, individual locations become into an interconnected community that gives you a genuine competitive edge. You transform a string of studios into a brand.

Read on to learn how successful fitness businesses maintain their quality while scaling – and how you can apply these ideas to your growth plans.

Why consistency matters

Consistency is one of those rare things all successful brands have in common. It’s what makes a brand feel like a brand as it scales. Without it, you’re just opening new doors under the same name.

You know the McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It" campaign? They went from a $344 million quarterly loss to a $1.8 billion sales increase after rolling it out in 2003. Not exactly the kind of brand we look up to in fitness, but hey – they clearly nailed brand consistency.

Why does brand consistency matter so much for your bottom line? Because consistency builds trust – and trust drives revenue. Research shows that 46% of consumers are willing to pay more for brands they trust, directly boosting profitability.

On top of that, brands in the top 20% for consistency outperform others in driving awareness, standing out from competitors, earning brand ‘fame,’ and influencing consumer attitudes. All very potent benefits for fitness businesses.

Why consistency shapes every aspect of the business

Consistency impacts how clients view and interact with your business from the outside – and how you run it from the inside. 

1. What consistency means for your members

Fitness is personal. Your members are coming to your studios to invest in themselves.

Some do this nearly every day – they want to learn and repeat their routine and/or classes with consistency every time, even when moving from one studio to another. Others might be new to the gym environment – less experienced, sometimes more vulnerable. Familiarisation is key to breaking down barriers and helping people feel at ease.

And it's not just the in-studio experience, but the overall perception of your brand.

After all, the fitness journey doesn't start when someone walks through the door. It starts on socials, in the app, or through a recommendation from a friend. Creating something cohesive through each touch point builds long-term connection and trust. 

2. What consistency means for your operations

Behind the scenes, inconsistency impacts how you run your business:

• When locations track metrics differently, you can’t objectively compare performance 
• Training new staff for new locations feels like starting from scratch 
• Opening each new studio means rebuilding systems rather than copying what works

Implementing a central system like Hapana standardises your operations, allowing each new location to plug into a proven, ready-to-go system – no need to start from scratch. Get this right, and scaling from one to two to ten studios becomes far smoother and more predictable.

As the team at VAURA (formerly Vive Active), who expanded their business from Australia to Singapore and the USA, explained to us:

"During our expansion, we faced challenges maintaining consistent quality across locations and efficiently managing operational logistics. Hapana helped us overcome these obstacles by providing a comprehensive platform that integrates all aspects of our studio management."

Let's move on to explore how to build this consistency into your expansion strategy without stifling what makes each location special.

Replicating what works (without crushing local creativity)

Applying consistency demands nuance. Standardise everything, and you risk your locations feeling sterile and disconnected from their local communities. Too much freedom, however, and your brand identity fragments into something unrecognisable.

Finding that sweet spot requires deliberate choices about what stays consistent and what can flex between locations. Here are three core strategies:

1. Build a comprehensive operations playbook

Solid documentation (standard operating procedures or SOPs) is consistency 101. Here are the key items from a branding and operational perspective:

• Workout methodology – Document the exact coaching language for each exercise, how to progress members safely, and what music/energy level defines different class formats
• Physical space – Create layout templates with equipment placement, lighting requirements, and brand elements that must be consistent (while allowing for local variations)
• Team development – Build structured interview processes, onboarding checklists, and regular training schedules that ensure every team member understands not just what to do, but why
• Member journey – Map concrete steps from inquiry handling to first class experience, check-in process, milestone celebrations, and retention touchpoints when engagement drops
• Communication – Develop response templates for common scenarios, social media guidelines, and for everyday interactions

Orangetheory Fitness – which expanded from a single studio in 2010 to over 1,500 locations across 25 countries – show us how SOPs can work wonders. They created a detailed operations manual covering everything from finding the right locations to designing studios, hiring staff, launching marketing, and opening day procedures – a key component in their expansion strategy.

Check out the in-studio branding too – the trademark orange screams ‘this is Orangetheory.’ Make sure your SOPs encode your themes and preferences so new locations hit the ground running.

You can start this process with your very first studio – no need to wait until you're going international. By documenting what drives results, collecting consistent member feedback, and recording what worked (and what didn’t) across each launch – from marketing to staffing to class scheduling – you build a process that makes every new opening faster, more reliable, and easier to scale.

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2. Get creative with engagement programming

Your core training method is what keeps the brand consistent – members know what to expect, and that’s what builds trust. But consistency doesn’t mean every location has to feel identical. The best brands lock in the non-negotiables and give each location room to flex. That might mean local events, seasonal challenges, or small tweaks that reflect the community. It keeps things fresh without losing what makes the brand work.

Consider building:

• Core offerings that remain unquestionably consistent (e.g., you might run certain equipment cardio enthusiasts love, or if you're strength-focused, ensure your deadlift platforms and squat racks meet the same standards everywhere)
• Signature challenges throughout the year that align with your brand values
• Community events that extend beyond workout hours and foster connections
• Seasonal programming that introduces fresh programs while maintaining your core methodology

Orangetheory’s branded events illustrate this by offering core zone-based programs that are consistent globally, complemented by signature challenges like All Out Mayhem, Hell Week, Orange Voyage, Catch Me If You Can, and Inferno. Programs that bend with the brand rather than break it. 

3. Adapt based on what members actually want – but with consistency 

The most effective fitness brands treat feedback as a core part of their growth strategy. 

As you expand, build consistent methods to collect member input, identify important trends, and implement changes that resonate. Few things build loyalty faster than members seeing their suggestions become reality, so:

• Analyse workout attendance patterns to spot which class formats are gaining or losing popularity
• Track which membership types sell best at each location to identify emerging preferences
• Monitor social media engagement to see which content resonates in different markets
• Compare member retention across studios to identify locations with best practices worth sharing

Fitstop – the Australian functional fitness brand that ranked #33 on the Financial Times' fastest-growing companies list – show us how to execute on feedback with intent and impact. 

By listening to their members, they moved from their "Refine You" challenge to longer-term "Unstoppable Series" programs. Later, noticing stronger engagement with time-limited events than ongoing programs, they created their "Move More Challenge" in 2024. 

The challenge became their top traffic driver – not just because it was timely, but because they had the systems to roll it out consistently across locations without diluting the brand. 

Laying down the groundwork 

Before we round up, let's talk systems. Behind every successful multi-location fitness brand is an effective system that makes expansion smoother and more predictable.

First, you need a single source of truth for your entire business. When studios track numbers differently, meaningful comparison becomes impossible. Hapana's reporting dashboard standardises metrics across your network, pulling information from your systems and displaying them visually. 

Pete Hull from Fitstop told us how this helps them coordinate campaigns across their sites: "Our multisite business owners can collate all the data to run unique campaigns for different regions."

Next, release your team from admin quicksand. As you grow, scheduling, payments, and reporting can eat up hours that should be spent with members. Hapana's automation tools handle these repetitive tasks through one central system, giving your staff their time back.

Finally, create a seamless brand experience that follows members everywhere. Hapana provides a beautiful, functional white-label app you can customise with your colours, logo, and style – giving members the same polished experience wherever they are. 

"What Hapana has done for us is make it as simple as the press of a button to book a class," says Bella Wagschall from VAURA.

Oh and don’t forget marketing automation to help you maintain consistent messaging across your locations, with intuitive templates, automated messages, and social media integrations, saving you even more time. 

With these systems in place, you'll expand more efficiently on the operational side while delivering a consistently outstanding experience for your members – the perfect recipe for successful scaling.

Consistency as your competitive advantage

Imagine being so confident in your brand that you'd send members to any location, knowing they'd get the same great experience. 

That's the power of consistency at scale. Members stop thinking about which studio to visit and simply choose the one that's most convenient – because they all deliver. 

Hapana makes this possible. Our platform unifies your entire operation, giving you standardised data across all locations, automating the repetitive tasks that slow growth, and creating consistent experiences that members recognise wherever they train.

Ready to see how Hapana can help your fitness business expand without compromise? Book a tour of the software with our team today.