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Hand & Stone Franchise Development has Successful First Half of 2021

It’s hard to believe we are already halfway through 2021 after coming out of a year that some thought would never end. In 2020, the Hand & Stone franchise development team signed 25 new franchise locations. This is still an impressive number given we could not open our spas for over three months and were later deemed an essential service.

In just the first six months of 2021, our team has already surpassed all of 2020 with 29 signings and there are no signs of slowing down.

President and Chief Development Offer, John Teza, expresses his excitement as we enter the second half of the year: “We continue to see significant interest in new spa development from our existing franchise owners and new candidates alike. Hand & Stone’s diversified revenue model and multiple service offerings set it apart from other investment opportunities. We are seeing the proof of this in our continued growth.”

Sarah Moudry, Director of Franchise Development, explains, “The past 6 months have been incredibly exciting. We are seeing prospective franchisees from pre-pandemic, come back to us and purchase multiple territories. I’m speaking with people from all over the country that are NOW ready to move forward with a proven brand.” She continues, “I’m speaking with mostly women and family groups, who want to invest in their future. The common theme is, ‘I want to work for myself, and invest in and build generational wealth, so the next generation doesn’t have to work so hard.’”

Not only have we been seeing diversity in our prospective franchise owners, but also in the territories they are interested in. We are super excited about the new markets we have sold in, including Birmingham, Alabama, Boise, Idaho, and Southern Utah. In addition, we’ve continued to expand in already established markets like Denver, Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham, Indianapolis, and Columbus.

A pattern the franchise development team has seen in the last two quarters is that existing franchisees are expanding with the brand. Out of the 2021 commitments, 19 of them are from current franchise owners. These business partners see the vision in the Hand & Stone brand and know that we are positioned to grow even more.

Multi-unit owner and Regional Developer, Nick Marco, explains, “I feel like I can’t keep up with my drive for wanting more locations because of my confidence using this playbook. This franchise is so well supported, and I feel like I do this really well, why wouldn’t I want more than one location?”

Another pattern we have noticed is the health & wellness and the value of self-care are increasing, resulting in more people wanting to profit off the industry. In a recent survey of 2,000 general population Americans, self-care habits and the possibility of whether they see themselves investing in self-care more this year were revealed. “Results found two-thirds of people (67%) agreed that the personal self-care routines they developed during the pandemic have become a permanent part of their daily life.” Specifically, “Visiting a spa was especially popular with respondents ages 18–23, with 55% considering it self-care.”

The industry itself is poised for growth, with Research and Markets expecting “the global health and wellness market to reach a value of US$ 4.24 Billion by 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.10% during 2021-2026.”

Moudry adds, “Now is the time to be in the health and wellness industry, period! The stars are aligning for Hand & Stone, and we hope they will align for you too! The next 6 months are going to be fun & busy!”

We are approaching our 500th unit in 2021 but we still have over 1300 primary markets to sell. To learn more about what markets are heating up, visit our Available Markets page.