Business View Magazine | July 2019

217 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2019 EUROPEAN WAX CENTER “We’ve done a fair amount of work finding where the best growth opportunities are, so we’re going to be focused on those areas. We recently hired Jean Grossman, who was previously with the Dunkin’ Donuts network, as our Chief Franchise Officer. She is tasked with continuing to accelerate our development and building out a field support structure for our franchisees. Historically, we’ve relied on intermediaries called Area Representatives, and we are beginning to have a more direct relationship with our franchisees going forward. “Our typical guest is in an age range from high 20s to close to 40; fairly affluent; living in the suburbs; college educated. And the ideal spot for us in a suburban area is a strip center, where you might have a grocery store and other services, like hair or nail salons. We’re not in the big retail mall settings; that’s not always a place where someone will go to have a service performed. So, it’s generally more freestanding and inline stores.” BVM: What do you look for in a franchisee? Berg: “We have a number of ways in which we identify prospective franchisees when we go into a new market. Some of this is word of mouth from our current franchisee base. A number of our franchisees have centers in multiple geographies, so they’ll introduce us to folks in their network. Oftentimes, these potential candidates have other franchises and are looking to expand with a better economic model like European Wax Center. “We think it’s important to have really good operators. The financials aren’t all that difficult to get into a center. It’s not a crazy amount. Often, we’ll have folks who have retired and have a good network and a good business operations background, not necessarily as a franchisee. We spend a lot of time with training and onboarding; we teach you the system and, following our playbook, most people are very successful. “There is a formal training program at corporate that gives an orientation to the brand, and what to expect when you open a new center. We help with site selection, understanding the lease terms, the