Should your gym sell protein shakes?

Most gym managers have thought about selling shakes at some point and talked themselves out of it. A shake bar needs staff, a fridge full of stock and someone to run it. It is easy to see the work and hard to see the money. This guide sets out how to weigh it up properly, so you can make a decision rather than put it off.

The market is bigger than it used to be

The UK fitness sector has grown for several years. The LeisureDB State of the UK Fitness Industry Report 2025 counts 11.3 million gym members, 16.6% of the UK population, and 7,202 gyms. Membership rose 5.4% on the year before.

More members means more people finishing a session and deciding what to drink or eat next. If you do not offer anything, that decision is made in the car park. The spend still happens. It just happens somewhere else.

Four ways gyms handle post-workout nutrition

• Do nothing. No cost, no effort, no income. Members bring their own or buy elsewhere. This is fine if your members rarely ask, but it earns you nothing.
• A staffed shake bar. Good for atmosphere and margin at busy times, but it needs a trained person, stock control, waste management and a till. It usually only makes sense for larger sites with steady peak footfall.
• A bought-in fridge or snack machine. Low effort, but you buy the stock, restock it, deal with expiry and carry the risk if it does not sell.
• A managed vending machine. A supplier installs, stocks, services and monitors the machine, and you receive a share of sales. You provide the space and a power socket.

The right answer depends on your site, not on which option sounds best. A busy flagship with a café may be well served by staff and a bar. A smaller club or a site that runs with little staff cover is the natural fit for the last option.

The gym that has no staff on the floor

Low-cost and 24-hour operators have changed what a typical gym looks like. The Gym Group, for example, describes itself as a low-cost, 24/7, no-contract operator and reported 891,000 members and 12 new sites in 2024. When doors are open overnight and early morning, nobody is at a desk to sell anything. A machine is the only way to serve those members, and they are often the ones training before or after work with no time to shop.

What to check before you agree to any machine

• Who pays for what. Ask for the cost of the machine, installation, stock, servicing and repairs in writing. With our service these are all at no cost to you.
• How you are paid. You should receive an agreed share of sales, with a monthly statement showing the transactions behind it.
• The contract. Our minimum is six months, then it rolls monthly. Be wary of long fixed terms you cannot exit.
• What is sold, and at what price. It should fit your gym. Prices should be agreed with you before the machine goes live, not set afterwards.
• Space and power. Check floor space, a nearby socket and whether it sits near the member flow, such as reception or the changing-room corridor. Our protein machine needs a footprint of 65 × 67 cm and stands 175 cm tall, so plan for under 1 m².
• Insurance, food registration and certification. Find out who handles them. With Nexus Vend, we do.
• Cashless payment. Members expect to tap and go. Our machines take card, contactless, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Keep the range in line with your brand

Your gym’s name is on the wall next to the machine, so what it sells matters. Ask whether the range can be curated to a standard you set, such as high-protein and low-sugar, and whether every product carries full ingredient and allergen information. We choose the range with you, then use sales data once the machine is live to swap slow lines for ones that sell better.

A simple way to decide

1. Count your quiet hours. Do you have opening hours with little or no staff on the floor? If so, a machine fills a real gap.
2. Find your member flow. Pick a spot where members already pass after training, with enough room and a socket.
3. Ask what you would have to do. If the answer is stock, clean, repair, it is not low effort. Choose a managed service where the supplier does all of it.
4. Agree the numbers in writing. Revenue share, pricing, contract length and what happens if it underperforms.

If you want to see what we offer, our protein shake vending machine mixes shakes, pre-workout and recovery drinks fresh on demand. For the full picture of how installation, servicing and payments work, read how it works.

We will not claim every gym needs one. Some sites are better off with a staffed bar, and we would rather tell you that than install a machine that does not suit you. Tell us about your venue and we will recommend the right setup.

Sources

• LeisureDB, State of the UK Fitness Industry Report 2025 (via Health Club Management)
• The Gym Group full-year 2024 results (via TipRanks)