Who Owns Anytime Fitness?

Chuck Runyon, Dave Mortensen, and Jeff Klinger met in the early 1990s while working at a fitness club in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1995 the three jointly acquired the Southview Athletic Club, which they grew from 500 members to 4,000 before selling it in 2001. The idea for Anytime Fitness came out of surveying what members of large gyms actually wanted: convenience over amenities.

The first Anytime Fitness club opened on May 30, 2002 in Cambridge, Minnesota, chosen partly because no competing gym served the town. The concept paired a smaller, neighborhood-scale club with around-the-clock member access controlled by key fobs and security systems, allowing unstaffed overnight hours. Early franchisees were largely former Southview employees, and Eric Keller became the first franchise owner.

Growth came quickly through franchising. The chain passed 1,000 clubs within its first decade and averaged roughly 300 new openings a year through the 2010s. International expansion started with Canada and spread to Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Japan, India, and dozens of other markets. By the mid-2010s the brand operated on every continent, including a club in Antarctica opened to serve research station personnel, a marketing point the company still uses.

Runyon and Mortensen built Self Esteem Brands around the gym business, adding Waxing the City in 2012, Basecamp Fitness in 2018, The Bar Method in 2019, Stronger U in 2021, and the SUMHIIT international concept. Anytime Fitness remained by far the largest asset, with more than 5,000 clubs and systemwide sales above $2 billion by 2023.

The April 2024 merger with Orangetheory moved the brand into Purpose Brands. Under the new structure Anytime Fitness kept its own brand president and franchise system while gaining shared technology and real estate resources. The brand ended 2025 with about 5,810 locations, the most of any fitness franchise worldwide, and roughly five million members.