The two men who started a billion-rand-a-year fitness empire in South Africa
One of South Africa’s most successful fitness empires, Planet Fitness, was started by New Yorker Manny Rivera and South African Mannee de Wet.
The now billion-rand-a-year business was born when Rivera and De Wet decided to open a small gym in Benoni, Johannesburg, with almost no money and little more than determination.
Rivera grew up in the Bronx and began his career at Bally Total Fitness—then the world’s largest gym group.
He started out by selling massage equipment but soon moved into gym contract sales, eventually running the company’s Manhattan region.
Despite the success, Rivera found corporate life unfulfilling. After meeting his South African wife, he decided to move to South Africa to start something new.
Arriving with no capital, credit history, or degree, Rivera had to find a way to earn a living. He began approaching local gym owners, offering to take over their marketing and sales.
Any extra income he generated would be split with the owner. “Even though I knew some of them were inflating their profits, it worked,” he said.
The idea grew into a consulting business that took him around the world and gave him a closer look at the South African fitness market.
At the time, the industry was dominated by the Health and Racquet Club, which had over 900,000 members and 85 clubs.
When the group collapsed in 2000 and Virgin Active bought its assets, Rivera saw an opening. He decided to launch his own gym brand, focusing on service rather than size.
To do that, he teamed up with Mannee de Wet, a South African who had also stumbled into the fitness world by accident.
After national service and a failed attempt at studying engineering, De Wet qualified as a commercial pilot.
However, when apartheid ended, the aviation industry contracted, and job opportunities became scarce.
“A lot of pilots were laid off with a lot more hours than I had. I had to find something else just to make money, so I started working in a gym,” he said.
The start of an empire
That side job turned into a career. “Five years later, I wanted to go back to flying. However, my business partner, who remains my partner to this day, asked me to help him start his own venture. I said I’d help for a year—and here I am, 30 years later.”
Their first gym in Benoni was set up with almost no resources. “We went into a dojo—karate on one side, gym on the other—and told the owner we’d pay him what he was making in rent. That was our first club. I was 25 years old,” De Wet said.
From the start, Rivera and De Wet focused on personal service. “We were in that club from morning until night. We knew every single member by name. You can have the best equipment, but if the service isn’t there, it doesn’t matter,” De Wet said.
Banks were reluctant to finance the new business, so the pair had to find other ways to expand.
The turning point came when they opened their first large flagship gym in Wanderers, Johannesburg. “That’s when people realised we weren’t going anywhere,” De Wet said.
Another key moment came when Rivera reached out to Discovery Vitality. He wanted Planet Fitness to be part of its new health rewards programme, but his initial attempts to contact them went unanswered.
He eventually sent a handwritten letter to then-CEO Neville Koopowitz, which led to a meeting.
After Rivera showed him around his gyms, Discovery agreed to partner with Planet Fitness, giving the small brand a major boost in visibility.
Still growing
From there, Planet Fitness began to grow more quickly. As banks and landlords started backing the company, it expanded across the country.
Three decades later, it remains South Africa’s longest-standing health club brand and the second largest after Virgin Active.
Planet Fitness now plans to open about five new clubs a year until 2030, with new sites in Randburg, Boksburg, Durbanville, and Fourways Mall launching in 2025.
Of the 51 existing gyms, 37 are in Gauteng, and the Western Cape is the next focus area. The group has over 220,000 members with over a million accesses.
Over the past 30 years, only about 20 clubs have closed, often because they were relocated to better sites.
The company has also kept pace with industry changes, adding facilities for newer training methods, such as HYROX, and investing in recovery and mobility areas.
De Wet said the focus now is on maintaining quality and adapting to how people train. “The definition of a flagship club has changed,” he said.
“It’s about understanding wellness in a more holistic way—mobility, recovery, cleanliness, and technology are all part of the experience.”
Despite the challenges of Covid-19, when gyms were forced to close and membership dropped by about 15%, the business recovered.
“We came out leaner and stronger. Every challenge brings opportunity,” De Wet said.
Planet Fitness
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