Colruyt Links Gym Savings to Grocery Discounts

Belgian supermarket group Colruyt is offering discounts on fresh fruit and vegetables to families who exercise at its Jims fitness chain, in a first for the country’s retail sector. Under the new “Move & Save” subscription, launched on Tuesday 15 September, a family of up to three people can train without limit at Jims for 14.99 euros a week and earn shop credit toward fresh produce when they meet a weekly training goal, according to the Colruyt Group press release.

How the Formula Works

For 14.99 euros per week — roughly five euros per person — a family of up to three can use any Jims club in Belgium, including group classes. When the family completes at least three training sessions in a week, distributed however it likes, it earns five euros in Xtra shop credit for fresh fruit and vegetables at Colruyt. Colruyt says active families can recoup up to 260 euros a year in fresh produce.

The subscription is open from age 14, provided at least one adult is 25 or older. A session counts as a check-in of at least 30 minutes, with a maximum of one session per person per day. The credit is loaded onto the family’s Xtra card every four weeks and remains valid for four weeks. Sign-up begins in three launching clubs — Gent Rooigem, Hasselt and Nijvel — while the shop credit is redeemable across Colruyt’s stores.

A First for Belgian Retail

According to RetailDetail, the initiative is the first time Colruyt has structurally linked the brands in its portfolio. Because the reward runs through the Xtra loyalty card, the credit can also be spent at Okay, Spar, Bio-Planet or Collect & Go, the group’s online grocery service.

“A network of brands only gains real value when you build solutions that exceed the sum of the parts,” said Pieterjan Nuitten, who is responsible for Move & Save and previously headed Jims. “With Move & Save we unite the strengths of Jims, Colruyt and Xtra. The result? Families move more, eat healthier and save on their budget.”

Colruyt frames the move as a step in its evolution from a pure food retailer to a “food & health retailer.” The group argues that exercise has a “spillover effect” on eating habits, citing Sciensano data that only 7% of adults eat enough vegetables and just 19% of young people get enough physical activity.

Expert: A Bid for a New Audience

Retail expert Els Breugelmans of KU Leuven told VRT NWS that the partnership signals Colruyt wants to be seen as a health player rather than a pure discounter. “It is the first time Colruyt connects the brands in its portfolio to each other,” she said. “They do this with the Xtra card and have been preparing it for some time.”

Breugelmans said the concept aims to nudge sporty shoppers toward Colruyt’s supermarkets, while acknowledging that the benefit may not be the only reason customers walk out with a full trolley. She also noted that the group’s ownership of a fitness chain is unique among Belgian supermarkets, making the model hard for rivals to copy directly — even as other grocers push into health.

The move reaches a younger, more urban audience than Colruyt’s traditional family base, with memberships open from age 14. Jims has expanded rapidly: the group acquired the chain in 2021, when it had 27 clubs, and doubled its footprint in December 2024 by taking over the 40-club NRG chain, as the company announced. Nuitten said Jims now operates 92 clubs, with more than 200 Colruyt stores within a ten-minute drive of one.

Competitive Pressure and What’s Next

Belgian supermarkets are locked in a fierce competitive battle, and health-oriented loyalty perks are becoming a differentiator. Colruyt’s ownership of Jims gives it an asset its rivals lack, and the group has been assembling health-adjacent businesses, including the lifestyle pharmacy Yoboo and the online pharmacy Newpharma.

Colruyt has said the ambition is to extend Move & Save to its other food brands, though the launch begins with Colruyt Laagste Prijzen. Nuitten described a longer-term vision in which a workout at Jims, a training plan and a meal plan feed directly into Collect & Go’s grocery pickup.

Open questions remain over how many families will enroll, how the arrangement affects revenue across the two brands, and how customer data linking gym check-ins to a loyalty account will be handled. For now, Colruyt is betting that rewarding exercise at the till can both nudge healthier habits and win loyalty in a crowded market.