Chief Executive named for merged Self Esteem Brands and Orangetheory business

Purpose Brands LLC - the newly renamed entity for the merger of Orangetheory Fitness and Anytime Fitness parent business Self Esteem Brands - has announced the appointment of Tom Leverton as Chief Executive.

Based in the US state of Minnesota, the US$3.7 billion company - which also includes Waxing the City, Basecamp Fitness/SUMHIIT Fitness, The Bar Method, Stronger U Nutrition, Healthy Contributions and Provision Security - is looking at further growth.

Leverton most recently served as an operating partner at Pritzker Private Capital, co-leading the firm's activities in the services sector. He's also previously served as Chief Executive of CEC Entertainment (parent company of family entertainment centre business Chuck E Cheese), Topgolf and Omniflight, and was previously Chief Development Officer at FedEx Office.

With six million members across 7,000 sites in 50 countries, Leverton is enthusiastic about potential growth, noting “we have fantastic brands.

“I had known certainly about Anytime Fitness and Orangetheory - and I’m learning about our other brands - but those two are powerful brands. They’re part of Americana.”

Chuck Runyon, who co-founded Anytime Fitness with Dave Mortensen over two decades ago, said the merged company will have dual headquarters in the US states of Minnesota and Florida.

Runyon stated “our employees could not be more excited to have a winter campus and a summer campus.”

With the merger between Self Esteem Brands and Orangetheory expected to be complete as of early April, Runyon said that post-merger integration plans are still in progress, and will continue through 2025.

Commenting on this process he advised “we’re trying to be very thoughtful, very surgical.

“We’re going about it slowly, making sure we’re doing these back-office integrations in a way that won’t disrupt the franchise or member experience.”

Explaining the merged entity’s new name, Runyon said it’s not intended to be a consumer-recognised name like Anytime or Orangetheory, instead, it’s more for current and prospective franchisees.

He added “the name will become more common in the franchising or B2B space.

“Over time, (franchisees) will know about Purpose Brands being the biggest global platform for fitness franchising.”

Images: Tom Leverton has been named Purpose Brands’ new Chief Executive (top, credit: Purpose Brands) and Chuck Runyon and Dave Mortensen, founders of Self Esteem Brands (below, credit: Self Esteem Brands.)