Earnings Labs

Planet Fitness, Inc. (PLNT)

Q4 2017 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 22, 2018

$63.99

-0.66%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+12.17%

1 Week

+13.91%

1 Month

+16.77%

vs S&P

+18.73%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Mike, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Planet Fitness Fourth Quarter 2017 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]

Brendon Frey

Analyst

Thank you for joining us today to discuss Planet Fitness’ fourth quarter 2017 earnings results. On today’s call are Chris Rondeau, Chief Executive Officer; and Dorvin Lively, President and Chief Financial Officer. A copy of today’s press release is available on the Investor Relations section of Planet Fitness’ website at planetfitness.com. I would like to remind you that certain statements we will make in this presentation are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect Planet Fitness’ judgment and analysis only as of today, and actual results may differ materially from current expectations based on a number of factors affecting Planet Fitness’ business. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. For a more thorough discussion of the risks and uncertainties associated with the forward-looking statements to be made in this conference call and webcast, we refer to you the disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements that is included in our fourth quarter 2017 earnings release, which was furnished to the SEC today on Form 8-K, as well as our filings with the SEC referenced in that disclaimer. We do not undertake any obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. In addition, the company may refer to certain adjusted non-GAAP metrics on this call. Explanation of these metrics can be found in the earnings release filed earlier today. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Chris Rondeau, Chief Executive Officer of Planet Fitness. Chris?

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Thank you, Brendon, and thank you, everyone, for joining us for our fourth quarter earnings call. 2017 marks Planet Fitness’s 25th year in business and I am extremely pleased with the strong results we delivered. We capped off a great year with an outstanding fourth quarter highlighted by system wide same store sales growth of 11.6% on top of a 10.6% comp gain in the same period last year, and adjusted earnings per share of $0.24, both of which exceeded expectations. For the full year added 1.7 million net new members and finished 2017 with approximately 10.6 million members system-wide. At the same time we expanded our footprint domestically and internationally with the opening of a company record 210 Planet Fitness locations bringing the system-wide total store count to 1,518 at the end of December. With many retailers reducing their physical presence due to increasing pressure from online shopping real estate trends continue to be in our favor. Landlords and developers are looking for Planet Fitness more and more as key tenants in their centers giving us the luxury of being selective [Indiscernible] approvals. Of the 210 stores opened in 2017, 206 were franchise locations. These were in existing markets and new markets like and Hawaii and Panama. With the Hawaii store market and Planet Fitness’s presence in all 50 states in the Panama location demonstrating our continued international expansion. We are pleased with the number of new member sign-ups in both Panama and Hawaii and are extremely encouraged by the demand for the brand. And its important to note more than 95% of new stores last year were opened by existing franchisees demonstrating the attractive returns are used to generate in reinforcing their commitment to growing their individual businesses in the planet that is brand. While franchise growth continue…

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Thanks, Chris and good afternoon everyone. I’ll begin by reviewing the details of our fourth quarter results, highlights from 2017 and then discuss our full year 2018 outlook. For the fourth quarter of 2017, total revenue increased 15.1% to $134 million from $116.4 million in the prior year period. Total system-wide same-store sales increased 11.6%. From a segment perspective, franchisee same-store sales increased 11.9% and our corporate store, same-store sales increased by 5.6%. Over 90% of our Q4 comp increase was driven by net member growth, with the balance being rate growth. The increase in pricing was driven by 90 basis points increase and our Black Card penetration to 59.8% compared with last year, combined with the $2 increase in Black Card pricing for new joins that would put in place system-wide on October 1. During the quarter, the increase Black Card pricing drove approximately 60 basis points of the increased same-store sales. Our franchise segment revenue was $40 million, an increase of 24.6% from $32.1 million in the prior year period. Let me break down the drivers of our fastest-growing revenue segment. Royalty revenue was $27.1 million, which consists of royalties on monthly membership dues and annual membership fees. This compares to royalty revenue of $17.5 million in the same quarter of last year, an increase of 54.8%. This year-over-year increase had three drivers; first, we opened 206 new franchise stores since the fourth quarter of last year, second, as I mentioned, our franchisee owned same-store sales increased by 11.9% and then third, a higher overall average royalty rate. For the fourth quarter, the average royalty rate was 4.83% up from 3.69% in the same period last year, driven by more stores at our current royalty rates including stores that amended their franchise agreements. As we discussed on our…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We will pause for a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question is from Oliver Chen with Cowen and Company.

Oliver Chen

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Hi. Congratulations on a great quarter and outlook. And we had a question generally on the unit economics of the new gyms. As you are building in more markets and you had really impressive unit growth. How are the unit economics trending? And then, as we look ahead with the national marketing budget it’s been a real powerful part of your story. How would you expect that dollar amount to trend on a long-term basis as with some quite an important part of what's been driving a lot of the awareness. Just curious about how we should model that? Thank you.

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Sure, Oliver. In terms of new stores, the way we look at our new stores, we look at them by Class year. We look at them in the months they opened. And you see from our same-store sales we’ve talked about in the past that new stores tend to drive fairly high percentage of the comps. The first year in comp kind of a year or two in operation. They’re going comp at call it 40% to 50%. Your second year is going be in kind of that 20%, 25% range. And then once you get into the fourth year and older they tend to be in the kind of the mid-single digit range. Those are still very similar in terms of stores that we opened in 2017. From an EFT perspective, from a same-store sales perspective, very similar to our previous vantage year.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Cowen and Company

And I think all of this, Chris, I think as far as the marketing standpoint, good news, if you can kick it off. This is a third year. We auto renew from additional two years for that contract. So that's already done on any brand awareness, so as mentioned -- is the all time high. We had dethroned Gold's gym, of course we did that, so ever since that we’ve been number one, which I think is again continuing to drive these comps that we’re seeing is that this marketing budget is static, it continue to grow with each new member. So 1.7 million members added net new last year is all implement to marketing dollars that continues fund this year. So I think as what we’re seeing is the momentum we’re driving. Lot of the data driven decisions that were using to formulate our marketing dictate driver’s comps.

Oliver Chen

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Okay. And lastly, Chris, the digital innovation is really impressive and sounds exciting. How do you expect a lot of the changes there to impact? And how we should think about the model? Do you think it will continue to increase traffic, increase customer satisfaction or decreased churn? What are your thoughts on what digital will plan for the customer experience in the universe?

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Yes. You’re talking about the premium consoles and the cardio that we’re testing, right?

Oliver Chen

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Yes.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Yes. Again, first I’ll say, it’s still really early, we just put them in fourth quarter, 15 sites, five of each of the three manufacturer sites, one portion is yet to be put in which will be shortly there’s a delay in construction. Its still early so I – we’re cautious with that, but what I will say and that being said is the early read on the early data is they are driving more white card upgrades than their peers, peer clubs and driving little more usage than their peer club. So and evidently people like running through New Zealand. So its interesting to be able to – I mean if we’re doing this for 25 years all over honestly, and to be able to now actually know the habits of our members and to be able to see an increase and enhanced experiences based on what we learn, it just something that this industry has never seen and we’re in the forefront of figuring that out.

Oliver Chen

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Well, great. Thank you very much. Best regards.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question is from John Heinbockel with Guggenheim Securties.

John Heinbockel

Analyst · Guggenheim Securties

So let me start with the 7 million to 8 million that you’re going to reinvest in the business. Can you go into that little more detail? Where is that going? And I guess it looks like we’re not for that EBITDA growth would be close to 20%, is that about right?

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Guggenheim Securties

Yes. So the – when it comes to the premium consoles and all the technology side it really comes down to that complete ecosystem which I talked about that in the past that we never had either the industry and I think we work with these manufacturers of the equipment which are in the process of how do enhance members experience to see that data are back to the member. So they know what they did and how to then with algorithms figure what they should do tomorrow. When you think about all the variables and apps out there, lot of them attract, not many recommend and that’s really the missing link is what people need to do tomorrow to get there fitness journey started and to get results. So, and then capturing that data, how to use that with insurance companies and corporations to show that their employees are or subscribers are getting healthier and working out. And then how you we use that for advertising purposes, for other businesses they’ll say we have these members, 10 million members doing over 300 million workouts a year and how do we get them. What they're doing? What they like. What they not like. What their experiences are. How do we get the right products in front of them based on their likes and dislikes for advertising purposes. So as that whole technology ecosystem, John, we’re looking to that building to capture all that and then leverage our 10 million members and growing.

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Guggenheim Securties

Yes, John, I think you’re question was in terms of our guidance, I think I said we expected our adjusted EBITDA to grow in the mid-teens as a percentage basis year-over-year.

John Heinbockel

Analyst · Guggenheim Securties

Right. That includes the $7 million to $8 million investment, right?

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Guggenheim Securties

The $7 million to $8 million is going to be mostly CapEx. It’s going to be a little bit of – it’s going to be OpEx, but a good chunk of it will be CapEx.

John Heinbockel

Analyst · Guggenheim Securties

All right. And then secondly, if you think about your pace of openings, is there a still the idea here that’s you want to hold to that 200 or so, because what's happening on the real estate market. And is there any – do you need any push back from franchisees who want to grow faster given the performance, their boxes and the brand awareness that’s building, but you think you could go faster and pick up more share. Do the tension exists there or not really?

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Guggenheim Securties

No. There’s really no tension. And in fact, I mean, there’s number of franchisees that are ahead of the development schedule and we’ll keep building in terms of site availability. And I guess I go back and maybe address a little bit as we’ve talked about the past and I think you alluded to is that we still see significant favorability for us on the real estate site availability front, I mean, you know just the latest is Toys "R" Us and others that are out there. And we don't see that doing anything, but continue to benefit us and given that there's not a lot of retailers particularly with the big REITs that are spread out geographically. There’s not a lot of other retailers that are taking down call it a couple hundred sites. so to me the way we look at it is that, I mean, we’re not holding them back and we do have sites that we will not approve for a couple reasons; One, we think that maybe the market is not developed to an extent that it's ready for that additional club that’s going to be pulling members to that club. Second, we don't think sites kind of Maine in Maine and we want to be at Maine in Maine. And we believe and we’re certainly seeing it that if you just hold on a little bit some of those sites will become available. And then the third element I would say is that more and more franchisees are doing ground-ups and that’s about an 18 month time lag, I mean, we have franchisees right now today that are out there doing ground-ups and couple of them are in the process right now. That won’t open into a probably early in 2019 as an example. But we believe that 200 year is we called it kind of labeled it powerful growth. We still think that’s kind of right number. But if we are franchisees are bringing in more sites in 2018 than they did in the 2017 and their available sites, so we think they should open then we will approve them. But we really go at it from that angle. The last point I will make is we've had now more and more what I’d call top-down approach to whether it's Chris or myself or Rob Sopkin our Chief Development Officer meeting directly with REITs and then taking sites in their portfolio, one, that’s either available now or two that's coming up on lease expiration with the existing tenant in the next like 24 to 36 months and we’re starting to push those sites now down to the franchisees. We didn’t do that 12, 18 months ago and we’re doing much more that today.

John Heinbockel

Analyst · Guggenheim Securties

Okay. Thank you.

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Guggenheim Securties

Thanks, John.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Guggenheim Securties

Thanks, John.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Jonathan Komp with Baird.

Jonathan Komp

Analyst · Baird

Yes. Hi. Thanks guys. Chris, I want to follow-up on a statement you made in the press release about carrying over significant brand momentum into 2018. And just wanted to ask a broader question what you've seen so far in the key sign-up periods? And then I think that the high single-digit comps guidance for the year is little above what you guided to initially for last year. So could you just talk about the sustainability of what you're currently seeing?

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Baird

Yes. I think the momentum everything from our comp still high single to low the double-digit comps here for the first quarter. Development pipeline, sites locations everything is filling up nicely for the year, so I see the momentum can carry on for sure as you’ve seen last couple of years.

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Baird

Yes. Jon, the only think I’d add to that is, we guided full year, obviously we are not talking about the quarter here, but we guided full year in that high single digit range. We think Q1 will be clearly on the high end of that, may be a low-low double-digit, but we have that much visibility into Q1, but we still feel comfortable with that kind of high single digit for the year.

Jonathan Komp

Analyst · Baird

Okay, great. And then, in terms of some of the drivers, I know you talk about some of the technology in the digital component or the app component. Is there potential for loyalty to be included in that. I know it’s something you’ve talked about a little bit over the past year or so but any updates there?

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Baird

Not heavily, but no doubt with the app and the technology and be able to host, the people are doing, you can see how we could easily tie achievement to some sort of rewards program for partnerships with other brands. The companies will be partnered with our bundling. That would the case too. So that’s why we spent million [ph] in it. And I think one thing with that technology we think about is, it is a – its not something that won and done, its an evolution and it will be as we learn and fine-tune over the years ahead of how we use it and how we enhance members experiencing, I think what it looks like in six, 12 months it will be very different than look like at 36 months.

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Baird

I think, Jon, just to add on to that is that with Craig Miller, our Chief Digital & Information Officer, one of the things we’re doing is, is we’re building that plumbing and that infrastructure to be able to do a lot more things from a technology perspective as Chris has been talking about even prior to this call, but certainly today to have the ability to pretty easily then link our systems into some partnership with somebody on the loyalty program as an example whereas today it would take us months if not years to be able to build something like that. We will have the flexibility down the road to Chris's point whatever the technology is and whatever its evolve to, to be able to have the flexibility to do that with our existing systems and partner up with others whatever that case may be.

Jonathan Komp

Analyst · Baird

Okay, great. And then last one from me. I don't think this was covered, but when you think about the new equipment technology you’re talking about obviously I think that would be incorporated into new equipment sales, but were there also be potential to sell the console as a standalone that could be retrofitted to existing equipment, so is that a incremental opportunity outside of the normal replenishment or re-equipment cycle?

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Baird

Not necessarily no, but the newer cardio is going in today is retrofitable with these consoles, so of a franchisee, if they buy equipment today and want to retrofit their new stuff. They’re not going to hold out buying stuff because they’re waiting for the consoles to retrofit them which is a good thing. But it would did have to upgrade. But I would see it could push if the trends continue and the data continues to be positive as we see today not early I would see that if there’s a franchisee you may not wait four, five years in cardio.

Jonathan Komp

Analyst · Baird

Okay, great. That’s helpful. Thank you.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Baird

Thanks Jon.

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Baird

Thanks Jon.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from John Ivankoe with JPMorgan.

John Ivankoe

Analyst · JPMorgan

Hi. Thanks. First, the housekeeping question, is there any change to the average equipment package sold for placement in 2018 in your estimates?

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · JPMorgan

I’m sorry, John, say it again, any change in what?

John Ivankoe

Analyst · JPMorgan

I apologize. Is there any change in the average price per equipment package sold per placement in 2018 or…?

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · JPMorgan

No.

John Ivankoe

Analyst · JPMorgan

Okay. So same levels of 2017. Great. Thank you. And then secondly, are there any characteristics, defining characteristics that you see in the system, whether in terms of higher than average, volumes are higher than average profitability that you’re seeing for your new stores whether that regional, whether its urban, sub-urban, rural, free standing what have you. Are you really beginning to see a certain type of store really rise to the top maybe in 2016 and 2017? And is the company doing with its franchisees anything to particularly pursue those types of sites in 2018 and 2019. So in other words what I’m getting to is, is there an opportunity for significant change of the trajectory of new unit opening volumes?

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · JPMorgan

Yes. I would say there's always outliers, John, a little bit, I mean, the extremes could be say a high urban area. Ag is an example, corporate store in open California, over indexes and members and monthly EFT and certainly EBITDA to more rural markets or markets outside of a metropolitan area that might they sell down a bit. We build a few more smaller stores in the last 12 months then we did the previous 12 months and when I say smaller, smaller on square footage basis, not significantly but little bit smaller. Sometime that’s because the only space you can get and sometimes it's because, it’s a little bit of a smaller market. But in terms of the way I look at it John is how our franchisees portfolio doing, knowing they’re not going to hit a grand slam on every single one and knowing they might to certain extent maybe do what we kind of call a fill-in to get a store into a market. You want to get one in there maybe get it before the competition might get there, but it might be a smaller store. It might be one that you might not even expect to be up at your kind of average. But from talking to our franchisees, looking at our corporate store portfolio, we open four stores in Q4 last year, there's no major outliers out there, with our Black Card percentage being slightly higher with the $2 price point being higher, albeit it just started October 1 with new member sign-ups on the Black Card perspective. We continue to see very good profitabilities at four-wall basis.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · JPMorgan

I think one thing I’ll add John is the, we have seen in the past 12 months a slight uptick in better attrition which is been promising.

John Ivankoe

Analyst · JPMorgan

That’s okay. That’s great. And certainly, lot of systems that I covered, you have some different economic performance across geographies. So lot of different reasons that market can perform materially different from -- its not an average unit volume perspective, but from a profitability perspective, have you seen any real surprises whether on the high side or on the low side that you are seeing you really, you kind of continuing this fully national expansion?

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · JPMorgan

John, there really isn't any. I mean, there are -- the ends of the spectrum could be a high urban area with higher rent that for some reason might not draw the higher volume to offset it. Many do. But whether you're in Dallas, Chicago, Orlando, Phoenix, Denver you go across these different geographies where you might say the ethnicities you're in the market might be different, you might say the income levels might be different, you know the weather might be – you can go through all those and John we really don't see that. Now as I said earlier there's always outliers that might perform a bit different, but not in the kinds of percentages that ever warriors [ph] whatsoever. So what we see is that you will have some more rural markets or smaller population markets, but then they typically have very low rents and so you might have 10%, 15% less members, but you may be paying instead of your high-teens or $28 square foot rent all in, you maybe paying five or six or seven. And so, there’s some those markets that will actually a higher EBITDA in dollar wise than a store in another market that have more members and more EFT. So it's not like what you're referring to where you kind of see where a particular portfolio operates differently and the southeast of the West or something. Our model -- model doesn’t work that way.

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · JPMorgan

Real time I’d say, John, I’d say Hawaii for example off to a bang of start that club.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · JPMorgan

And we open up a corporate store in Berlin, Vermont. And it’s a very, very small town, rural area that frankly people in the places like this, they use to grabbing 30 to 45 minutes to go to grocery store or to a dentist and so it pulls -- the club pulls from that kind of a range. And that club is exceptional well.

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · JPMorgan

Let’s say, inside an enclosed mall, actually, we're the Walmart..

John Ivankoe

Analyst · JPMorgan

That’s great, guys. Thanks.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · JPMorgan

Thanks John.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Rafe Jadrosich with Bank of American Merrill Lynch.

Rafe Jadrosich

Analyst · Bank of American Merrill Lynch

Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Bank of American Merrill Lynch

Hi, Rafe.

Rafe Jadrosich

Analyst · Bank of American Merrill Lynch

You finished with the low end of your historical leverage range, can you talk about how you’re thinking about a potential debt recap for in 2018?

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Bank of American Merrill Lynch

Sure. We talked about this I think in Q4 when we did our Q3, when we did that release and as you guys know, we’ve stated that our kind of range has always been kind of that three to five range. We are at the low -- getting towards the low into that range. By the end of this year we would certainly be down at the low end or not below that. And we have had and are having conversations with our board about what the right refinancing option should be. And that's we said before that something we would do sometime early in 2018 and we still expect to do so.

Rafe Jadrosich

Analyst · Bank of American Merrill Lynch

Okay. And then when you look at the comp acceleration are you seeing that in newer clubs ramping fasteners or is it in mature clubs that are seeing the uptick. And what you think is driving – what’s driving that it's different now than it was maybe earlier, this year and same question for your clubs that you’re seen the comps accelerating, those are all mature. What’s the change that you are seeing?

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Bank of American Merrill Lynch

It’s pretty much across the board whether it's a mature clubs, all-age clubs, the every model in there and we have reequips in there and lot of more stores doing that. Lot of [Indiscernible] lot of it quite is driven to by the annual fee timing is driving some as well as the secondary billing option is driving some, which is a backup billing method for the members?

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Bank of American Merrill Lynch

I think the one thing which we've said in the past a bit is that – and I think some of this has to do with clubs, expanding putting in an older clubs expanding putting a buy card area or maybe clubs that came up on lease expiration, they relocated across the street or down to the next shopping center. Things like that, I think our operators are much better today than they've ever been. And I think that as they've gotten larger they have gotten more sophisticated with their operations team and their marketing teams in real estate. I mean, you go by four; five years ago we didn't have hardly any of our franchisees that had a real estate, a CMO, a CFO and frankly probably an operator outside of the franchisee. Today many of our larger groups have that talent and I think they're just dialing it in a lot more than they used to. So the net that is mature clubs are doing much better too.

Rafe Jadrosich

Analyst · Bank of American Merrill Lynch

And last question. I was surprised to see the Black Card penetration went up in the quarter that you increase the pricing. I think the last quarter you talk about is you are expecting a 70 basis points benefit. Can you talk about after like having in place for a quarter what’s your expectation going forward and what you're seeing in terms of the penetration?

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Bank of American Merrill Lynch

Yes. As I said it was about a 60 basis point impact in Q4, it began January 1, it was for the new Black Card members. We said when we did the pilot that we saw little to know negative impact in the acquisition side of it. So it wasn’t unexpected as to how that kind of came out, but its about 70 basis points. I think that as we look at 2018 the pricing should have probably 175, 200 basis points embedded into our guidance.

Rafe Jadrosich

Analyst · Bank of American Merrill Lynch

Great. Thank you.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Bank of American Merrill Lynch

Thanks, Rafe.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from James Hardiman with Wedbush Securities.

James Hardiman

Analyst · Wedbush Securities

Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking my call here. I wanted to touch on the cash impact of tax reform. You gave us the impact that’s going to have on your income statement non-GAAP of 39.5 to maybe 25.5. Maybe walk us through how your cash tax rate changes before and after tax reform? And then the TRA impact if there is any, I know that’s a delayed impact. But to give us the schedule just curious how that schedule is going to change as a result of different tax rates? And then maybe talk a little bit about your franchisees. How tax reform is affecting them I guess I don’t even know if they’re mainly paying the corporate rate or for lot of these guys are paying the pass-through rate, but ultimately what do you expect them to do with those savings and does any of that benefit you?

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Wedbush Securities

Sure. So previous to the tax reform our adjusted tax rate of call it 39% to 40% was based upon assuming all of our shares were Class A shares and all those shares, so therefore all of the income was tax at the Planet Fitness Inc. level. And today we’re roughly about call it 90% -- 89%, 90% of our of our income is taxed at Planet Fitness Inc. because we still have about call it 10%, 11% of our shares are Class B shares. So at a 39% to 40% tax rate we were getting a tax deduction from the step-up basis from those stock sales most of which were from TSC as they sold-out. And we were getting that benefit at call it $0.40 on the dollar. And of that $0.40 on the dollar then which reduce our cash taxes to the government, 85% of those savings of that benefit went to the TRA holders and then 15% of the state in the company. So the way I've always talked about it is think about that our 39% tax rate was roughly because of the step-up -- we got about a 15% reduction off of that. So that was kind of the benefit for the company by having this [Indiscernible] structure in place. So now if you fast-forward to call it 25%, 26% tax rate now with our federal state and local tax rate that were estimating will be our full rate for 2018. Now then those deductions which that’s why there were that huge deferred tax expense which I talked about that went through our P&L is that we in essence then we re-measured that future benefit because it's no longer worth $0.40 on the dollar, it's only worth call it $0.25 on the dollar. But we’ll be paying a lower cash tax rate using that 25%, 26%. So, the way to think about it then is because that we will with the taxable income we have albeit it reduced by this tax basis deduction that we get at a 25% rate we will pay significantly less in cash taxes to the IRS, but we will still pay 85% of those savings at that 25% tax rate we’ll pay those to the TRA holders. So again it's about a 15% benefit to Planet Fitness Inc, off all of that 25% to 26% tax rate. So let me pause there and see if that is clear in the way that kind of in essence cash taxes in the adjusted tax rates as I just walk through if that make sense.

John Ivankoe

Analyst · Wedbush Securities

It does. And I guess bottom line it for me from a free cash flow after tax free cash flow how is that being affected by the new rates?

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Wedbush Securities

Yes. So if you look at our free cash flow what you still have to look at is that TRA payment because it's not in your P&L, because your only tax, they call it a 25% tax rate on lower income because of the tax deduction, but you’ll go to the cash flow statement and you'll see a payment that goes to the TRA holders albeit in the following year. So for example, in 2018 when we take a tax deduction that's only worth $0.25 on the dollar, I'll reduce my taxes that I pay throughout this year, because you have to make quarterly payments, I’ll pay less taxes to the IRS, so less cash taxes. And then in 2019 I'll pay 85% of those savings out to the TRA holders. But that will go to the cash flow statement and so you'll need to look in essence at free cash flow less the taxes paid under the tax benefit arrangement i.e. the TRA.

John Ivankoe

Analyst · Wedbush Securities

And that significant. It sounds good. At then end of day the net of all that, I don’t know if you want to give us a dollar number, but it sounds like its going to be pretty significant?

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Wedbush Securities

Well, the next of it I think is the point I made a minute ago and that is that in essence we’ll be paying basically about a 15% -- we’ll get about a 15% benefit off of the 25% tax rate year when you get right down to it. Because if you take my lower taxes to the government and then when you add in the 85% of the TRA, so you're in essence getting about 15% benefit off of your statutory tax rate.

John Ivankoe

Analyst · Wedbush Securities

That’s helpful. And then on the franchisee side, any thoughts there?

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Wedbush Securities

Yes. I think a couple of things is and obviously we’ll get this on a corporate basis as well where capital assets outside of the leaseholds you’ll get a 100% deduction if you are placed in service and so we’ll get that as a cooperate entity and then a franchisee whether there a LLC entity or a corporate entity will get immediate deduction of their of their CapEx assets less leasehold. And then in addition, there’s about 20% of their income that is if they are an LLC entity, that gets passed through at a zero tax rate subject to a limitation that 50% of their W-2 wages. So the there, if you go back and you think about what the Trump Tax Reform Act did, is it basically said, we’re going to incent you to invest and building assets and generating jobs, in essence that’s what I believe they are doing by this immediate write-off of an asset. But they are saying that you know that you -- what you gotta do is you got to be employing people. So if you employ people, you’re paying them wages, so we’re going to give you a zero tax on 20% of your income, but only if you have W-2 wages, and so they put that limitation of 50% of your W-2 wages in there. So that’s why I don’t know what percentage of these have LLC, I’d say a fairly high percentage do, particularly the smaller guys. So I think the net of it is there is going to be incentive to build stores, there’s going to be incentive to replace equipment, you know with the stores that are coming up to that need to have their re-equips done, and they’ll be able to save taxes at the end of the day by doing. So I -- net net to our business from a franchisee perspective, I think it’s positive you win-win.

John Ivankoe

Analyst · Wedbush Securities

That makes a lot of sense, I appreciate it. Good luck to you guys.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Wedbush Securities

Thanks, thank you.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from George Kelly with Imperial Capital.

George Kelly

Analyst · Imperial Capital

Hi guys, just a couple of questions for you. So first, I wanted to follow up on the equipment, Chris [ph] you’ve talked about the enhanced equipment coming soon, the question is how important is it for you to internally develop parts of that? And will you own a lot of the enhanced software?

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Imperial Capital

Yes, a lot of what – that’s kind of has a debt investment and the plumbing that Dorvin talked about, we want to be sure that a lot of what’s captured and learn from his internal us, so regardless of what manufacturer we use today or in five years, it’s our [Indiscernible] that we can built on to wherever we use in the future, not to mention it’s a proprietary to us to which is important.

George Kelly

Analyst · Imperial Capital

Okay, and so that relates to the data, but also the sort of interaction that you tie to the media stuff you are offering and everything else?

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Imperial Capital

Some of the, like the Netflix is Netflix, all right. That’s how we learn from what male or female or age range is, what they are doing, what they are using, how they are using it, what their duration is, so how we drive their experience going forward and stuff that we use, and we know that we can then have these cardio react and change accordingly. So some of that will be us, but naturally there’s a [Indiscernible] Netflix. It’s how we manipulate the -- data remind it that we change our experience in the future, not unlike the that people run to New Zealand or LA and how we change that going forward.

Dorvin Lively

Analyst · Imperial Capital

And work ago George is that you know with our plans from a technology perspective of having this infrastructure and plumbing in place so speak would be that we would then have the ability to just link up from an API perspective into if it’s another app. If it’s a loyalty company program we wanted to link into, you know things like that, that would be a plug-and-play so to speak. We’d had the ability to do that very easily and not time consuming.

George Kelly

Analyst · Imperial Capital

Okay, thanks. And then just one last question from me, it seems like your expansion into where you’ve gone international in other countries it’s been successful. I know it’s early in places, but what do you think about Europe? I know, you know you’re not going to, whatever you can see there, what is the competitive dynamic if you could say anything on that, that would be great? Thank you.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Imperial Capital

Sure, yes. We’re really mostly focused on Latin America as far as to this point except for Canada. We’ve done, we’ve looked at Europe briefly. It seems like each country over there kind of has their low cost chain. There’s a basic fit, there’s a mix fit and each country kind of has their own gym, a pure gym in U.K. And I think in some of the instance, they are priced more of low price, that not necessarily our model meaning judgment free and so on and so forth, you [Indiscernible] for the first time but they are low cost. You know the big question is if you look at pure gym, it’s got a 180 stores in the U.K. it probably like to having 500 or 600 here in the states. So, the question is do we look to acquire or do we try to go in there one at a time and compete that way. You know I think we get there when they get decision, but again they might be more of a role of strategy in Europe just because there each country has got a pretty significant player.

George Kelly

Analyst · Imperial Capital

Okay, thanks.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Imperial Capital

Thanks, George.

Operator

Operator

The last question is from Matthew Brooks with Macquarie. Matthew Brooks, your line is open.

Operator

Operator

And there are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call back over to the presenters.

Chris Rondeau

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Great, thank you. This is Chris, thanks everybody for joining us today for the fourth quarter call and year end. As you it was a great 2017, lot of good stuff happening here as a brand, with this technology front, granted it’s going to be a few years to fine tune and work through it , but it’s a I’d say in 25 years doing this, this is for me, it’s some really exciting times of how we look to leverage it just in the future which is something that to be able to know what people are actually doing in a club is pretty substantial so it’s look forward to working on this in the future and thanks for the call.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.