German fitness operator McFit is planning to open a gym with an innovative membership model that allows users to train for free.

The operator will offer free membership “through sponsoring and partners from the business world,” Mcfit founder Rainer Schaller said in Germany’s Handelsblatt Global.

Adding: “It’s not just about making money. If it were, we might not be doing it. Of course, the concept has to pay off, but when you’re already the No.1 like we are, you look for new challenges.”

To boost revenues, the club could stage industry conferences and sporting events, as well as showcase fitness equipment and sports brand manufacturers.

The operator, which is the largest in Europe in terms of memberships, is looking to convert an old industrial building in Oberhausen, western Germany, into the largest fitness studio in the world, costing in the region of €50m (US$59.6m, £46.1m).

Named The Mirai, meaning “future” in Japanese, the club will sit on a 592,000sq ft (55,000sq m) plot of land and is expected to open in 2019.

Former FIBO event director Ralph Scholz joined McFit’s management team in June to lead “an innovation project”. He said: “As a trade show man in Cologne, I used to spend the entire year preparing for a four-day event. The Mirai could be a permanent, year-long showcase for our industry.”

McFit has 1.5million members and more than 270 branches in seven countries.