Anytime Fitness will open clubs in the Middle East following an Area Development Agreement with Qatar-based Almuftah Group - a privately held company based in Doha, Qatar.

Three clubs are already planned for Qatar under the ownership of Almuftah Marketing, a division of the Almuftah Group. The first is expected to open by July.

The Almuftah Group is involved in a wide variety of business ventures, including restaurant franchising, consumer retail products, car sales, and manufacturing and engineering.

"Our long-term goal is to open an Anytime Fitness club in each town in Qatar, to make fitness accessible to everybody," says Ali A Al Muftah, director of the Al Muftah Group.

"We're also planning to open new clubs in the neighbouring countries in the Middle East region."

Anytime Fitness now has more than 1,000,000 members across almost 1,500 clubs in eight countries.