trainer in the early 1990s. After a decade at World Gym, Bouchard
left to open his own clubs in North Carolina.
Less than a year later, Bouchard gave Pepe a call, and he had a
proposition – become his partner and Pepe could have 70 percent
of the business.
“I had just opened up my first location but I wanted to do
more, and I really needed somebody I could trust and who I
knew was financially set and willing to move forward,” reflected
Bouchard. “He told me he wouldn’t do it for 70 percent; he would
only do it 50/50 because he felt that, in the future, I would resent
the fact that I gave him 70 percent of the business. We’re 50
percent partners. He never thought once of having 51 percent.”
Stories like this can be found throughout the PF® system,
attesting to the mentorship and kindness Pepe offers to everyone he
meets.
“The impact Joe has had on me as a franchisee and business
owner has been incredible and life-changing,” added Chris Klebba,
franchisee with Klebba Group.
Klebba was given Pepe’s contact information by a mutual
business associate when he was first exploring the Planet Fitness
brand. When he called roughly a decade ago, Pepe answered, and
the friendship has strengthened ever since.
“He was gracious with his time and shared openly everything
from deep in his operations and all of his best practices with no
expectation of anything in return. Since that day, he has continued
to be a mentor, friend and advisor to me, my family and my team,”
said Klebba. “He even traveled here to Michigan at no charge to
help our team with extremely valuable advice on customer service.
Stories like that go on throughout our 10 plus-year relationship.”
Bouchard said he could easily name another 30 people in the
Planet Fitness system who became involved in the brand because of
Pepe.
“I’m not just saying this because he is my partner, but I don’t
believe that Planet Fitness would be where it is today without his
involvement at the very beginning,” said Bouchard. “He’s engaged,
he loves what he does, and he’s very much in tune with the
industry.”
Read our conversation with Pepe below to learn more about
his business and how he views the PF brand. can’t do nothing; that’s not going to work.” And, if we weren’t Planet
Fitness, we were still going to be a low-cost provider, but we’re happy
to do it with Planet. It’s been a wonderful ride so far.
Name: Joe Pepe
Company name: Planet Fitness of Raleigh
Number of clubs: 13, two under development
States your clubs operate in: North Carolina In your opinion, what stands out about the Planet Fitness
brand?
How did you become a Planet Fitness franchisee?
First of all, Ron, who does the real estate, is my nephew and
became my partner in 1993 in World Gym and now works for
Exaltare. Chuck, I had signed him up at a health club when I was
working years and years ago when he was probably 16 or 17 years
old. He grew, and little by little, we brought him aboard. He had
been my partner up until the time we finally sold four years ago.
CJ was a trainer and nutrition guide in my gym for about 10 or 11
years, so I knew CJ well. He was a model person and a wonderful
trainer. All of the things you look for – he has strong character,
strong integrity, very honest, very humble, good operations guy.
CJ is my partner now, and we have a wonderful relationship. I say
to people, partnerships are like marriages. There’s a lot of compro-
mising and a lot of change that may happen along the way.
Joe Pepe, right, met his business partner, CJ Bouchard, in the 1990s. Today,
the pair operate 13 locations in North Carolina.
You have the things that stick out physically. It’s the purple,
the yellow, and I think most people that know anything about
fitness when they see purple and yellow they start to think of Planet
Fitness. The physical presence of it is there. Obviously, the logical
things are $10 and all that stuff that goes with the market.
Once you get into the real layers of wha t it is, Planet has
wonderful franchisees – very smart, intelligent, bright people that
are always willing to help each other. We take knowledge that we
have and we help someone else. We share it with them. Sometimes
you need people to talk to. I think that has a lot to do with success
because these people have moved the Planet system forward as it
needed to be. We couldn’t build yesterday’s clubs and be successful.
That takes franchisees and people willing to step out of that
comfort circle, and in order to get positive change, you’ve got to
be stepping out. Clubs got bigger. They got better. We invest a lot
Continued on page 20
We knew LA Fitness was coming to town, and what if we
weren’t a Planet Fitness? Someone else would eventually be one.
When you put those two things together, Planet Fitness and LA
Fitness, our conventional club would have had a very, very difficult
time surviving. We didn’t like the process of changing over. It wasn’t
fun. I mean, we were changing culture overnight, but the best deci-
sion prevailed. It’s kind of like necessity is the mother of invention.
When you’re dealt some things, you say, “OK, this is the situation.
How are we going to handle this, and what are we going to do? We
How did you meet your business partners?
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