franchisee sp tlight
Timothy Kelleher
Taymax Group Acquisition, LLC
Partner(s): ClearLight Partners and Kyle Nagel
Number of clubs: 49
States your clubs operate in: Texas, Tennessee,
Pennsylvania, California and Ontario, Canada
How did you become a PF ® franchisee?
In 2006, I co-founded Sit Back & Relax, a massage chair
vending business operating in shopping centers, airports and
amusement parks throughout the United States. In 2007, my
business partner, Kyle Nagel, and I were looking for ways to grow
the massage chair business. Mike Grondahl and Chris Rondeau
gave us an opportunity to test installing massage chairs as a Black
Card amenity in their Danvers, Massachusetts, Planet Fitness®. The
chairs were extremely well received. Within two months, Sit Back
& Relax had become a preferred vendor, and we were installing
massage chairs in all clubs.
In my role overseeing all operations and business development
for Sit Back & Relax, I immediately saw a tremendous opportunity
in Planet Fitness. Between the amazing success the Planet brand
was enjoying and the great people I was meeting in the franchisee
base, I knew I wanted to get involved. In 2008, we sold Sit Back &
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Taymax Group Acquisition President Tim Kelleher speaks at the opening of a
mini Judgement Free Zone® at a San Antonio Boys & Girls Club.
Relax to Smarte Carte and bought one of the largest area develop-
ment agreements ever sold at the time, giving Taymax the rights to
build more than 40 clubs.
How did you meet your business partners?
Kyle Nagel and I were partners originally at Sit Back & Relax.
We started Taymax together following the sale of Sit Back & Relax
to focus on franchising Planet Fitness clubs. In October 2013, Kyle
and I partnered with ClearLight Partners, a growth-oriented private
equity group with a track record of helping companies like ours, to
help accelerate our business.
Tell us a little about yourself and the company’s
background.
Personally, before Sit Back & Relax, I graduated from the New
Hampshire Police Academy and managed the criminal bureau of
the Pelham (NH) Police Department. I also served as a hostage
negotiator with the Southern New Hampshire Regional Special
Operations Unit. I have a B.A. in sociology from Bates College in
Lewiston, Maine, and an M.S. in Criminal Justice Administration
from Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Taymax Group Acquisition, LLC has over 700 employees
across the United States and Canada. We are based in Salem, New
Hampshire, with a 30-person backroom team supporting the growth
and operation of our clubs. We currently have 49 clubs open, spread
across five regions: Texas, Pennsylvania, California, Tennessee and
Ontario, Canada. We will be at 60 units by the end of 2018 and have
the rights to build over 100 clubs over the next several years.
Tim Kelleher, second from left, accepts the Developer of the Year Award from
Planet Fitness CEO Chris Rondeau, second from right, at the 2016 PF Annual
Conference in the Bahamas.
How did you know the time was right to join with
private equity?
By 2013, we had 12 clubs open with a lot of personal money
tied up in the business and saw a tremendous opportunity in front
of us that we wanted to capitalize on. It seemed like the perfect