Denmark’s largest chain of fitness centres, fitness dk, is switching strategy in its efforts to get even more Danes to take up fitness training.

As part of this drive, from January this year, the company no longer requires full annual membership of its 33 centres across Denmark, and will also offer new prices of DKK249-399 (£25.40) a month.

An open day campaign on 5 January, including a TV advertisement offering a discount of DKK5 per kilo body weight, also saw 6,300 new members enroll at fitness dk in one day.

Based on a survey of 2,400 physically active Danes, fitness dk estimates that more than 450,000 Danes are keen to start working out but have yet to take the plunge. The potential market is estimated to be worth in excess of DKK1.5bn.

“The time has come to remove the nation’s last excuse for not taking up the physical exercise that is so vital for a long and healthy life,” says Rasmus Ingerslev, CEO of fitness dk. “Denmark, like the rest of the western world, is heading for an obesity epidemic – a situation we need to reverse before it’s too late.”