‘Nobody Had an Inkling’: Former Employees of Relax & Co. Launch New Ventures After Sudden Shutdown

NEWPORT — At a cluster of warehouses off a side street a few minutes drive from the center of town is scattered a fleet of 33 parked vehicles — pickups, SUVs, vans, dump trucks, sanders and a mini bus, along with a Porsche 911 Carrera S and BMW convertible — nearly all bearing license plates that spell the word RELAX followed by a numeral.

The highest reads RELAX 56.

The ghost fleet of new-looking white vehicles with black rims is a remnant of what had been the fast-expanding business ambitions of James Bruss, a Bradford, N.H., contractor whose Newport-based property management firm, Relax & Co., shut down abruptly in August, causing some 145 employees to lose their jobs.

Relax & Co.’s closing came quickly on the heels of a lawsuit filed by Bruss’ former principal client, Valerie Mars, a billionaire member of the family that owns the Mars Inc. candy empire, who accuses Bruss of misappropriating millions of dollars she paid him for construction projects.

Only four weeks after Relax & Co. shut down, Bruss filed for personal bankruptcy — the second time in 10 years, according to court records (the lawsuit has been stayed pending the current bankruptcy proceeding).

The sudden collapse of Relax & Co. mirrored its turbo-charged rise.

Targeting the wealthy seasonal home market around Lake Sunapee, Bruss set out to create a broad-based services provider that would do everything from managing homeowners’ property — cleaning, landscaping, plowing, electrical/plumbing, painting, masonry and renting — to offering “experiences” such as private yoga sessions at atop Mount Sunapee.

By far the linchpin of the company’s seeming success was Mars, who alleges in her lawsuit against Bruss that she paid him a total of $17.9 million for work on her projects. She alleges he used between $8 million to $10 million for his own purpose, including the $1.3 million purchase of an inn in Bradford, N.H.

Mars hired Bruss to perform work on four real estate projects in the Lake Sunapee and Sutton, N.H., areas — two of which Mars was developing for public benefit. Her lawsuit alleges he inflated costs and failed to perform most of the work.

The breakneck speed at which Relax & Co. was expanding and adding to the services it was offering drew professionals with years of experience. For example, Bruss had hired a licensed drone pilot to conduct digital mapping projects and was weighing adding a welding division before the company collapsed, former employees said.

Patti Lamoureaux, who was manager of Relax’s residential cleaning division, had worked for eight years with a cleaning contractor that serviced Novo Nordisk in Lebanon, but joined Relax & Co. last December “because of the huge potential they offered,” she said.

“They went from 30 employees to 150 within a matter of months, and with where Jim wanted to take the company, the possibilities seemed endless,” Lamoureaux said.

Employees were treated well and paid generously by the standards of companies in the property management business, where cleaning, landscaping and plowing typically pay at the lower end of the wage scale, people who worked there said.

There was health insurance, a 401K retirement plan, apparel with the company logo and gift cards so employees could buy lunch or get ice cream.

Lamoureaux said employees at times did wonder about the company’s astronomical growth, but Bruss had a simple explanation.

“Jim would say the Mars family is our backer. They are the ones allowing this to happen,” Lamoureaux told the Valley News in an interview.

Now, together with Trever Perreault, another former Relax & Co. employee, Lamoureaux has formed NH Spotless Cleaning Solutions, a commercial and residential cleaning services that has picked up more than a dozen of their former employer’s clients.

Trever Perreault, of Springfield, N.H., left, and Patti Lamoureaux, of Lempster, right, registered their LLC, NH Spotless Cleaning Solutions, the day after their former employer, Relax & Co., abruptly shut down amid embezzlement allegations against owner James Bruss. The business partners, who had managed Relax & Co.'s commercial and residential cleaning accounts, respectively, took over its commercial accounts and have been working to increase their client base. "For the first three weeks, we didn't have a day off," said Perreault. (JAMES M. PATTERSON / Valley News)

The company’s storefront offices are on the ground floor of the same building, known as the Lewis Block, where Relax & Co. had its headquarters on Main Street in Newport.

“Relax closed on a Tuesday and on Wednesday we were in Concord getting our LLC and insurance and were out working in the field later that day,” Lamoureaux said, adding “we were working literally seven days a week until two weeks ago to service all the accounts.”

The cleaners finally got a break when a Lake Sunapee tour boat company ended operation for the season and “allowed us to take Mondays and Tuesdays off,” Lamoureaux said.

Lamoureaux and Perreault, who worked together before joining Relax & Co., had talked previously about launching their own cleaning business. The collapse of Bruss’ empire presented the two with an opportunity to resurrect that plan, Perreault said.

“When the rumor started, (Relax management) put out something about ‘making changes,’ and at that point I said to Patti, ‘You know, if this goes under we probably could do this on our own. … I don’t want to go back to my old job and neither do you, ‘ ” Perreault recounted.

Trever Perreault, of Springfield, N.H., left, and Patti Lamoureaux, of Lempster, right, unload equipment from their company vehicle at NH Spotless Cleaning in Newport, N.H., on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. “We talked about going on our own years ago,” said Perreault, who worked in cleaning with Lamoureaux for Novo Nordisk, then followed her to Relax & Co. Because of the sudden closure of Relax & Co. amid allegations of embezzlement against the owner, some of their new commercial cleaning clients tested their trustworthiness by leaving cash around their buildings. (JAMES M. PATTERSON / Valley News)

‘We were all completely clueless’

Jake Clark, who grew up and lives in Newport, worked in Relax & Co.’s construction division, called Harbor and Hearth, for about 13 months as a carpentry assistant.

He said during the period he worked at Harbor and Hearth they had two main clients: Mars, for whom they were doing site work at her property on Lake Sunapee in New London, and “constructing a full new house for two people who worked at the company” on Davis Hill Road in New London.

“It was full reconstruction of an old farmhouse. We tore it down, rebuilt it from scratch completely … we were there for well over a year,” Clark said.

Clark recalled that the construction crew was called to a meeting at the division’s depot on Roymal Lane in Newport — where the company’s fleet of vehicles is currently parked — for an 8 a.m. meeting on a Monday in early August.

A senior manager informed the crew that Mars “had made a strategic decision to pivot away from the company” and everyone would be laid off. No mention was made of Mars’ allegations against Bruss. It was only after the meeting that Clark said coworkers had learned the real reason behind their chief client’s “strategic decision.”

“Nobody had an inkling. We were all completely clueless. Nobody had any reason to believe anything wrong (was) going on. We were all just worker bees following orders,” Clark said.

Indeed, Clark said that Mars’ allegations came as a shock because, until they became public, Bruss had been known as a “total sweetheart” of an employer.

“He comes off as the nicest guy you ever met, a perfect salesman,” related Clark, who said Bruss “would randomly pay for everybody to leave work early and go get ice cream.”

Clark has been able to pick up work with another contractor and supplement his income with a graphics design side hustle (with which he offers free logo and business card design for former coworkers and their spouses).

‘A lot of people were mad’

Things seemed fine until late July and early August when employees began hearing rumblings that the firm might be running into financial difficulties.

“There were major purchases lined up in the construction department and some of the guys said they were having issues getting new equipment,” said Jacob Warkentien.

He said he was hired as Relax & Co.’s 103rd employee last November as manager of the newly-created Digital Reality Division to provide aerial 2D and 3D maps and models for property development and project design for the construction industry.

Warkentien, who had previously worked as a database engineer, said he was attracted to Relax & Co. because the company would allow him “to gain all this knowledge and experience in three months that would take me three years on my own.”

In the nine months he worked at Relax & Co., Warkentien said 40 more employees were hired at the company.

“They treated us great,” Warkentien said, and there was an esprit de corps among employees as they felt they were part of a successful, growing enterprise.

But the attitude soured when the entire construction division was suddenly let go in early August.

“The explanation given was that we lost the Mars client,” Warkentien said.

He recalled the team of about 30 employees standing outside on Main Street all day waiting for their last paycheck. The group started throwing their Relax & Co. shirts, company branded gear and key fobs onto the street and sidewalk, he said.

“A lot of people were mad,” said Warkentien, who was inside Relax & Co.’s offices at the time as senior managers were pleading with employees to “hang tight. We’ll figure this out.”

“Bruss wasn’t around anymore,” Warkentien said. “We were told he was on vacation.”

Like other former coworkers, Warkentien is now launching his own business, a digital mapping and modeling business to serve the construction and project development industries. He just landed his first big client: a contractor doing a demolition project.