These PE Firms Control 82% of Planet Fitness’ 2,982 Gyms

Planet Fitness is one of the world’s largest fitness franchises, with 2,982 gyms across the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Puerto Rico, and Panama. Founded in 1992 in Dover, New Hampshire as a turnaround of a struggling Gold's Gym location, the company now trades publicly on the NYSE under PLNT.

It’s best known for its low-cost memberships and its “Judgement Free Zone®” positioning, and the clubs are heavily clustered along coastal markets. Here is a mapping of Planet Fitness openings since its founding.

Operationally, Planet Fitness has been a steady unit-growth machine: since 2020, it’s added ~120–141 locations per year without losing a single location. Most Planet Fitness franchisees are private equity firms, with 281 locations corporately owned.

Below we will dive into learning about the people running these portfolios.

1. Argonne Capital

In 2003, Michael Klump founded Argonne Capital Group, a private investment firm focused on acquiring multi-unit operating companies (often with real estate components). Since inception, Argonne has deployed $2.1B+ in equity, with its portfolio generating roughly $1.8B in annual sales and employing 15,000+ people. He also made a $15M gift to establish a real estate division at his alma mater, University of Colorado Boulder. Argonne is also one of the bigget investors in Fitness Para Todos that operates 80+ locations in Mexico.

2. United FP

United FP is the largest developer and operator of fitness clubs under the Planet Fitness brand. UFP is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and serves approximately 1.2 million members across more than 190 clubs in 14 states. Since 2019, it’s operating under American Securities.

3. Trilantic Capital Management

Taymax (operating under Trilantic) is a leading Planet Fitness franchisee with more than 150 locations located throughout North America.

4. Olympus Partners

Excel (operated under Olympus) is a Planet Fitness franchisee serving six markets including Austin, Dallas Ft-Worth, Northwest Arkansas, Raleigh-Durham, Tulsa, and Virginia. Excel operates over 90 Planet Fitness locations serving nearly 750,000 members since 2022.

5. TowerBrook

Towerbrook bought ECP Holdings from Exaltare Capital Management in 2021. As part of the transaction, Omar Simmons, Founder and former Executive Chairman of ECP-PF and Managing Director of Exaltare Capital Management, retained a stake in the business and stayed on the Board of Directors. ECP, headquartered in Orange, CT, is one of the largest developers and operators of fitness clubs under the Planet Fitness brand.

6. Black Duck Partners

The firm operates 130+ locations in 12 U.S. states and Winnipeg, Canada, with a team of 2,000+ employees.

7. Pinnacle Fit Clubs

Pinnacle Fit Clubs owns and operates approximately 95 Planet Fitness locations across the United States.

8. Baseline Fitness

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, Baseline Fitness is a leading franchisee in the Planet Fitness system with 100 locations under its umbrella.

9. Ohana Growth Partners

Ohana Growth Partners owns and operates 94 Planet Fitness health clubs with over 600,000 members in Maryland, the District of Columbia, Tennessee, Florida, Washington state, Michigan, and California.

9. FLynn Fitness

Lead by Greg Flynn, Flynn Group entered the Planet Fitness system in 2023 with the acquisition of 37 clubs. This was our first step outside of restaurants and demonstrates the potential to grow more broadly across consumer-facing franchise businesses.

10. SBJ Partners

SBJ Partner operated franchise locations in New England and Pacific Northwest.

Insights about other Planet Fitness franchisees:

• Founded by Jon Evans and Scott Sanders, Houston Fitness Partners is one the few independently owned and operated franchisees of Planet Fitness. They 40+ units across the Houston, TX area.

• Midwest Fitness Partners is led by Mike Hamilton and John Clancy. Mike is a former police officer who is now also a franchisee of 7 BREW. Before stepping into franchising, John was a top-performing stock broker at the infamous Stratton Oakmont from the movie ‘Wolf Of Wall Street’. John also runs a portfolio of Smoothie King locations in the Midwest.

• Morgan Stanley is an investor in Impact Fitness , leading Planet Fitness franchisee with 29 clubs across the United States and Canada.

• In 2008, popular author Paul Pilzer gave a keynote at a Planet Fitness event. Two years later, his wife Lisa became a Planet Fitness area developer franchisee in Salt Lake City, Utah.
• Most private equity executives and franchisees running Planet Fitness are male. There are, however, a few exceptions. The four Patel sisters are all Planet Fitness franchisees and collectively run 20 units across six states. High Performance Coach Linda runs a store in Yakima, WA. Dennis Griffin runs two stores in California. Toni Rufo also runs two stores in Illinois.
• This Planet Fitness corporate analyst and his investment banker brother rose to become owners of 50+ units.
• Brothers Rick & David Kueber are founders of Sun Tan City(263 units),and franchisees of Planet Fitness (41 units) and Buff City Soap(63 units). They also donated $3M to the University of Louisville training facility.
• Craig Benson has served on the Planet Fitness Board of Directors since July 2017. Benson has also been a franchisee of Dunkin' for over 15 years with 147 stores. He previously served as the 79th Governor of the State of New Hampshire.

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