An increasingly popular gym franchise in Japan costs around US$20 ($25.60) a month, offering teeth whitening, photobooths and — almost as an afterthought — exercise equipment.
The patchwork concept is called Chocozap, run by Rizap Group, a billion-dollar fitness company that made its name in high-end personal training. In less than two years, the sub-brand has tapped into a casual and frugal gym user base with more than 1,500 locations and 1.2 million-plus customers.
Typical memberships in Japan’s JPY278.4 billion ($2.51 billion) gym industry are on par with the UK or the US, at around US$60 to US$80 a month, but Chocozap has taken the concept and adapted it for a wider base, seeking to draw in casual users willing to sign up at a lower price.
That’s made the business a major player in the sector, which saw a 2.2% rise in the number of customers to 2.8 million last year.
The oddball gyms — some of which also have gel manicure equipment — was created as an experiment during the coronavirus pandemic when Rizap’s core business of personalised training was suffering.
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As people spend more time working flexible hours and at home, they’re also seeking out more enriching experiences while keeping fit. Most recently, some locations even began offering CT scans.
“We decided to incorporate elements of convenience stores — open 24 hours, in convenient locations, and frequently change the offerings,” said Takayuki Suzuki, president of Rizap Technologies, the subsidiary involved in developing the Chocozap concept.
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The first part of its name “choco” has nothing to do with cocoa beans, but comes from the Japanese word chokotto, or “a little bit”. Despite their offerings, the gyms are designed to save on costs; there are no showers because most customers stop by on their way home, or pop in for light exercise. Chocozap constantly adds and removes services depending on how well they do with users.
A standard Chocozap location is small and unmanned, which has made it easy for Rizap to deploy locations amid a chronic labour shortage. Members enter the locations by accessing the gyms using their smartphone app. Inside, they’ll find gym equipment, and use the various offerings that usually need to be booked in advance. The color scheme is minimalist white and yellow, making it seem cosier than conventional gyms.
“They’ve managed it well to make it efficient,” said Kyoichiro Shigemura, an analyst at Nomura Securities Co. “The business model is hard to pursue as scale-of-economy is needed to make a profit, so anyone who attempts to challenge them will face two to three years of losses.”
Rizap went public in 2006, and is known for its TV ads showing Japanese celebrities becoming slimmer and fitter in a matter of months. Its intense gym program can cost as much as JPY600,000 for two months of instruction but was a hit, helping the company reach a current market value of around JPY140 billion.
Chocozap reached profitability on a monthly basis in late 2023 and expects to be profitable this year. A cleaning service comes through twice a week — and the company has also experimented with membership fee discounts if customers are willing to help with cleaning.
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To keep costs down, Rizap employees visit the China Import and Export Fair in Guangzhou every year to see what kinds of funky and fun products are available. So far, some of the equipment introduced include single karaoke boxes and massage chairs.
“We realised on-site staff are not fundamental values gym offers, and lowering barriers to visit as much as possible unlocks demand,” Suzuki said.
The brand aims to more than double number of stores to 3,000 by 2027, and eventually reach 10,000 — on the same scale as convenience-store chains. There are plans to add more services and machines, and also expand overseas. It already has about a dozen locations overseas, mostly in China, and one in Santa Monica.
“I keep the membership for the Karaoke machine,” said Miwa, a part-time worker in her 40s who initially signed to exercise. “The only complaint I have is how the Karaoke box isn’t perfectly soundproof.”
Photos: Bloomberg
