GapMaps has released its 2022 annual retail network reports that tracks store openings and closures across Australia, providing key insights on the changing competitor landscape in key retail sectors.
The annual retail reports provide unique insights and trends across Australia in cafe and beverages, health and fitness, childcare, and auto tyre and servicing.
Cafe and beverages
Tracking 19 brands in 3093 locations, 175 stores opened, and 114 stores closed in 2022, representing a net change of 61 additional stores compared to the previous year.
McDonald’s operates the largest cafe network with more than 890 McCafe stores, and continued to grow opening 28 new locations and closing six. The major bubble tea chains, which have sizable store networks also reported strong growth. Chatime, with 169 stores, opened 31 new locations and closed five, Gong Cha, with 143 stores, opened 27 and closed two, and Sharetea, with 85 stores, opened 13 and closed just one – representing 63 total store openings across all three brands. Most of that growth was in Sydney, and to a lesser extent Melbourne.
However, the sector did experience some contraction in 2022. The Coffee Club (246 stores), Donut King (220) and Muffin Break (176), who operate some of the largest coffee-related networks, reported more closures than openings. The Coffee Club contracted by 14 stores, opening nine and closing 23. Similarly, Donut King contracted by 12 stores, opening nine and closing 21, whilst Muffin Break contracted by four stores, opening 14 and closing 18.
Health and fitness
Tracking 22 brands in 3,460 locations, 151 premises opened and 60 closed in 2022, representing a net change of 91 new centres compared to the previous year.
Anytime Fitness, which is the largest gym chain in Australia with 558 locations, opened 26 new centres and closed five, representing a net change of 21 new gyms in 2022.
F45 and CrossFit, who each operate more than 500 locations, have centres in 60 of the 67 cities with populations of more than 20,000 residents. F45 added five new gyms and closed two, a net change of three, whilst CrossFit reported no openings and closures.
Snap Fitness and Plus Fitness both operate sizeable gym networks with more than 200 locations respectively. Both brands reported growth in 2022, with Snap Fitness opening 15 new gyms and closing 10, a net change of five, and Plus Fitness opening five new gyms and closing two, a net change of three.
Emergent brands to report strong growth and no closures include Fitstop Australia opening 25 locations, Club Lime Group opening 15, Body Fit Training Australia opening 14 locations, and KX Pilates opening 12.
Auto tyre and servicing
Tracking 14 brands in 2243 locations, 82 locations opened and 33 closed in 2022, representing a net change of 49 additional centres compared to the previous year.
Bridgestone has the largest network with some 340 locations and operate one centre per every 100,000 residents across capital cities and their network extends the majority of Australian cities, including 58 stores in towns with less than 10,000 residents. However, in 2022 the brand reported seven closures and five openings, representing a net change of minus two across the year.
Tyrepower (301 locations) and Mycar (276 locations) both reported net growth. Tyrepower opening 14 locations and closed two, a net change of 12, whilst Mycar opened 10 locations and closed four, a net change of six. Ultra Tune, who also operate a large network with 262 locations reported a net change of minus three, opening two locations and closing five.
Dunlop reported the largest growth across all brands, opening 27 locations and closing seven, a net change of 20. Goodyear also had significant growth, opening 13 locations and closing just three, a net change of 10.
Childcare centres
In Australia 8707 childcare facilities provide Long Day Care and offer 631,000 places. In the 12-month period to 31 January 2023, an additional 26,000 places have been added across a net additional 258 facilities.
With 1.7 million children aged five and under in Australia, this means 2.8 Long Day Care places per child aged five and below are available. This is lower in Brisbane (2.2 children per place), but higher in Perth (3.5 children per place) and Adelaide (2.8 children per place). The 19 major operators tracked in the reports represent more than 3,000 facilities and between them opened 80 new locations in 2022.
Goodstart Early Learning is the largest provider operating 665 locations in 58 of the 67 cities with more than 20,000 residents. This includes 137 centres in Greater Melbourne. G8 Childcare and C&K Childcare/Kindy also operate large networks with 457 and 314 locations, respectively.
Commenting on the overall findings across each of the retail sectors tracked, GapMaps Senior Analyst Scott Johnson says, “Each report provides brands with unique insights on key trends into the changing competitor landscape in their respective sectors. Overall, we have seen strong growth across all sectors in 2022, which points to a more buoyant market and greater provision of services to residents across the country.
“Our ability to use a range of data points to represent the most up-to-date view of physical network locations is helping brands make better location decisions as population shifts continue to have an impact on final location decisions and meeting customer needs,” Mr Johnson said.
Brands can request a copy of the reports by email at subscribe@gapmaps.com.
