News

Trilantic North America has acquired a majority stake in Taymax, a Planet Fitness franchisee. No financial terms were disclosed. Harris Williams was financial adviser to Taymax on the transaction.

PRESS RELEASE

New York — August 1, 2018 — Trilantic North America, a leading private equity firm, today announced that it has acquired a majority interest in Taymax Group Holdings, LLC (“Taymax” or the “Company”), one of the largest Planet Fitness franchisees with more than 50 club locations across the United States and Canada. Trilantic North America invested in partnership with Taymax’s co-founders, including CEO Tim Kelleher, and other key members of management.

Taymax was founded in 2009 with the acquisition of one club in the San Antonio market. Since then, the Company has grown organically to 52 clubs across the greater San Antonio, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Toronto and Ottawa 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.

Planet Fitness, one of the fastest-growing health club franchises in the country, is known for providing a high-quality, low-price fitness experience in a welcoming, non-intimidating environment, called the Judgement Free Zone®. As of March 31, 2018, Planet Fitness had 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.

“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.”

“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 Mr. 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.”

Harris Williams acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Taymax on the transaction and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as its legal advisor. Kirkland & Ellis LLP provided legal advice to Trilantic North America.