Show of Strength: Springfield boutique fitness centers flexing clientele growth in active industry

Recently reaching its sixth anniversary, Salt & Light Pilates LLC is now serving roughly 150 clients per week – by far the most it has taught in its existence. The clientele boost for the studio in Chesterfield Village was reached by simply adding a single employee, said owner Linda Moore. That additional staffer was Moore’s own daughter, Maggie Muniz.

After graduating from the University of Kansas in May and getting certified as a Pilates instructor, Muniz came on board at Salt & Light. It was an instant boost in the arm for the business, as Moore said she had long dealt with few vacancies for the classes she taught in the small, 475-square-foot studio.

“I would love to expand the studio,” Moore said of the boutique fitness venture, which trains in low-impact flexibility, muscular strength and endurance movements. “I had 22 classes, and they were full.”

Amid wrapping up her college career and planning for her June 2025 wedding, Muniz jumped at the chance to join her mother in business.

“It was a couple hundred hours of certification processes,” Moore said. “She worked her tail end off to get there. Now we have about 44 hours a week, so we’ve doubled our classes.”

While declining to disclose annual revenue, Moore said her client retention rate is around 80%. The studio at 2134 W. Chesterfield Blvd., which doesn’t offer memberships, increased its class prices by 15% to $23 in 2023 – a move Moore said she made due to inflation.

“Our rent went up; our utilities went up,” she said. “Everything that we did to run this went up, and so we ended up just raising it enough to cover that.”

Market growth
Salt & Light is among a growing number of representatives in the boutique fitness studio market. Approximately 40,000 boutique studios are open in the U.S., according to a 2024 study by Norwest, Australia-based market research firm McCrindle. The domestic ventures contribute to the worldwide rise of the boutique market, which is growing annually around 7.6% per year, according to a report from Bristol, Great Britain-based Wellness Creative Co.

Boutique fitness studios are typically specialized, smaller-scale gyms that focus on specific types of workouts like yoga, cycling, high-intensity interval training, barre, or Pilates, offering a more personalized, community-centered experience to those found in traditional gyms.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Orangetheory Fitness and Australia-based F45 Training are among popular boutique fitness franchises. Orangetheory’s website notes over 1,300 studios across the U.S., while F45 has over 2,000 franchised locations in more than 50 countries, according to its website. Both companies have Springfield franchises.

Springfield couple Joe and Bethany Mizell opened an F45 franchise in 2020 at 1937 W. Republic Road. The fitness concept, which stands for functional 45-minute workout sessions, offers cardio and resistance classes. While pleased with reaching roughly 100 members, Joe Mizell noted increased competition in the local fitness market is a factor for what he said is largely flat revenue for the Queen City studio over the past two years.

“I’d say the first three years was a big spike and then it leveled off,” he said, declining to disclose figures.

The Mizells have held the line on prices, which they said is left to the discretion of franchise owners. They said they’ve maintained membership options at the same rate since opening, which include $20 for a single class or $120 for a 10-class pack, according to its website.

Bethany Mizell said the feeling of community within the six-employee Springfield studio at 1937 W. Republic Road is a key contributor for F45’s membership growth.

“We’ve got such a close-knit group of members that everybody belongs, and they do things outside of the gym as well,” she said.

At the Queen City location of Burn Boot Camp, a North Carolina-based franchise that combines strength and intensity interval training, Cami White said its member count is nearly 680 as it approaches its two-year anniversary in October. White is the local franchise partner with sister Karlee Yount.

“Before we opened, our long-term goal was to get to 500 members by year three,” White said, noting its membership begins at $149 per month, which includes unlimited camps, complimentary child care and one-on-one focus meetings with a personal trainer.

Growth was substantial enough for the sisters that they quickly needed more space beyond the 5,600 square feet in the building constructed for them two years ago at 820 W. El Camino Alto St., Ste. 100. They now occupy an additional half of 2,400 square feet in an adjacent building, leasing the remainder to Missouri Sports and Spine, which White said opened earlier this year.

“Because we were just focused on grow, grow, grow, we weren’t necessarily prepared for the renewal phase,” she said, noting they’ve placed some of their roughly 35-employee staff into new leadership roles to better focus on day-to-day operations. “So, in the last year we’ve really focused on retention because of renewals and then also just putting processes in place.”

While the membership base has grown beyond expectations and will likely reach 700 by the start of 2026, White said she and the staff try to make sure they know every person coming into the gym.

“You’re going to walk into a big-box gym, you’re walking in and nobody notices you,” she said. “You’re going to come into our gym and we’re going to greet you by name with a high five. The trainer’s going to call you by name on the floor. All of that stuff is really what keeps people coming back.”

Although the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the growth of SWET Hot Yoga and Fitness Studio, which launched seven years ago at 4216 S. Cox Road, revenue growth has been solid for the venture ever since, said owner Bethany Fite.

“We’ve just continued to grow and grow and grow, and it looks like 2025 will surpass 2024,” she said. “Our business has grown 100% since our first year in 2018.”

In heated and unheated studios, around 800 clients take classes each week, ranging from barre to power dance and buti yoga. Fite said around 70 classes are offered per week while monthly memberships for unlimited classes range $100-$135, according to its website. Price increases took place this year, following hikes in 2021 and 2023, she said.

Noting the state minimum wage was $7.85 per hour when the business started, Fite said she’s had to increase employee pay over the years to stay ahead of the rate. Minimum wage is set to reach $15 per hour in January because of Proposition A’s passage in 2024.

Looking at options
Fite said she’d love to franchise SWET Hot Yoga beyond Springfield, noting she’s open to regional options such as Columbia, Kansas City, St. Louis and northwest Arkansas.

“I’ve had some inquiries about franchising and based on those inquiries, I do have the legal documentation completed,” she said, adding that franchise ideas have yet to come to fruition.

The local franchise owners at Burn Boot Camp and F45 both say they are content to keep the focus on their current facilities. However, Moore at Salt & Light said she and her daughter want a larger studio space.

“We’ve thought about it and it’s exciting to think about,” she said. “Expansion is down the road, it’s in the talks, but nothing has been set in stone yet.”