PE Firm Invests in 52 Club Planet Fitness Franchisee

One of the largest Planet Fitness franchise operators has teamed up with private equity firm Trilantic North America in a deal announced earlier this month. Taymax North America operates 52 Planet Fitness clubs across the greater San Antonio, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Toronto, and Ottawa markets.

"We look forward to working with the Trilantic North America team, whose success in collaborating with founders and entrepreneurs makes them an ideal partner to execute our shared vision," said Taymax co-founder and CEO Tim Kelleher. "We are excited to drive continued growth by both investing in our current clubs and expanding the Taymax footprint in new and existing markets."

Taymax has been recognized as the Planet Fitness system Developer of the Year in two of the last three years and Franchisee of the Year in 2018.

The news comes as M&A activity among Planet Fitness franchisees has been on the increase as of late. Last spring, Planet Fitness franchise operator Sunshine Fitness Growth Holdings announced it had acquired two franchise groups representing 31 clubs in Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina. At the same time, PLNTF Holdings announced its subsidiary, PF Indy, an Indianapolis operator, had acquired 14 additional clubs in Alabama and Virginia.

"Tim has done a remarkable job building Taymax into one of the premier franchisees in the Planet Fitness system and has assembled an impressive management team to support the continued growth of the platform," said Grant Palmer, partner at Trilantic North America. "We are excited to partner with the management team through the next phase of the Company's development, and believe that Taymax and the broader Planet Fitness system will continue to benefit from secular trends around health and wellness, a key theme across several of Trilantic North America's consumer investments."

Planet Fitness has approximately 11.8 million members and more than 1,565 stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, the Dominican Republic, and Panama.