A revolution in health and wellness
Combining the best elements of gym and care franchises in a new market segment
We’ve created an emerging and lucrative market sector by bringing affordable, high-quality massage to the High Street. Our pioneering approach brings what’s been traditionally an out-of-town service directly to town centres, in convenient, warm and welcoming professional massage centres.
- Emerging market with no direct competitors
- Insatiable demand – every centre is fully subscribed
- Membership subscription model with recurring monthly income
- Strong margins with up to £220K p.a. profit from established centres
- Our accredited Training Academy provides franchisees with exceptional therapists
- Multiple sites already in development for 2023, with expansion to 100+ centres by 2030
Business Model
This is a revolutionary, category-disrupting business model, developed and proven here in the UK – and there’s more demand than we can keep up with!
Operating from a large centre, we'll train your expert team to provide four types of massage to the highest standards. We’ve honed the model and learned the lessons, so we can help you build a thriving business on firm foundations that are already proven to work.
“I wanted to be in early. It means I can learn from the outset and build out a strong area for myself that grows with the brand.
I like the idea that it’s still a young, entrepreneurial brand.” - Gavin Hawthorn, TMC Altrincham
Financials
Our powerful combination of massage quality and accessibility plus first-mover advantage generates significant returns for franchisees.
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Figures are projections based on centres operating in the UK currently and are not a guarantee of future performance.
“We wanted a business that would provide a steady income whilst balancing with a healthy home life. It is hugely rewarding to see the benefits that we can bring to the community.” - Mark & Rachel Coldham, TMC High Wycombe
TMC Training Academy
Our vision is to have 100+ centres open throughout the country by 2030, providing an industry-leading place to work for approximately 3,000 professional massage therapists.
This requires the training of hundreds of new best-in-class therapists, which is why we developed The Massage Company Training Academy.
The course was created by industry pioneer John Holman, our Director of Massage Training, recognised worldwide as one of the most foremost massage experts with over 30 years of experience.
The course has been carefully curated, ensuring the delivery of world-class treatments, and it’s fully internationally accredited and recognised.
For franchisees, that means they can rely on a steady stream of fully qualified, professional massage therapists who meet The Massage Company’s industry-leading quality standards coming through to meet their business needs.
Our Story
After more than 25 years each in the spa sector, building and selling multimillion-pound businesses and leading some of the industry’s biggest organisations, founders Charlie Thompson and Elliot Walker noticed something exciting.
Massage was delivered in dedicated spas and upmarket hotels, and that left a HUGE opportunity in the market – convenience.
They thought: what if massage was affordable and accessible to everyone?
The Massage Company’s first centre opened in Camberley in 2016 and was immediately successful. Demand quickly outstripped supply, and we knew that our wellness revolution had begun.
Our first franchised centres swiftly replicated our original success. Having created the emerging market sector for accessible and affordable massage in Surrey, we’ve now seen the same rapid growth in every location where a franchisee has opened their centre.
And you can see it – and profit from it – too.
Next Steps
Contact us below to receive a franchise prospectus with further information. Then set up a call with Esther, our franchise recruitment manager, before meeting founder and CEO Elliot Walker and enjoying a complimentary massage to experience the TMC quality for yourself.
The final figure will be largely determined by the costs involved in the acquisition of the property and its fit-out costs.
You will be assisted to write your Business Plan which will include sales, profitability and cashflow projections which will be needed to support your application for funding from the banks.
Marketing executive swaps big brand background for a big future of his own
“I’m passionate about a good membership subscription model,” he says, “and a lot of my career background is in relationships and loyalty. I’m very familiar with the commercial metrics around customer retention, so it was an obvious focus for my search for a franchise to run.”
That search led him to The Massage Company and discussions with Elliot Walker, its founder and CEO, where he found strong similarities with his most recent corporate role.
Gavin explains: “I met with Elliot and from the start I thought the model had a lot of synergy with the clinic company I was with at the time: find a good location, turn it into a great site, employ top quality expertise to help people improve their lives, and generate demand for the service.
“I understood quickly how the model worked, the potential for the brand. It had good essence and was well thought through.
“I spent several months on due diligence, meeting the founders Elliot and Charlie, and spending time with franchisees in their centres, plus working through the numbers. I signed a deal in May to open what is hopefully the first of many centres in north-west England.”
Gavin’s first centre will open in Altrincham in Q1 2023, and will see him leverage his considerable experience at brands including Whitbread and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) to start something for himself.
Franchise experience
As vice president of marketing, EMEA for IHG, Gavin got valuable insight into what good franchising looks like.
“A big part of my role became helping franchisees achieve success, which gave me a great opportunity to understand what franchisees need from a brand, as well as understanding what the brand itself can achieve with a franchise model,” he says.
“I had really good exposure there to putting marketing and franchising together. It also had a good financial slant as well, the franchisees are investors so ROI was important.”
Start small, think big
Along with IHG and Whitbread, Gavin has worked in senior marketing roles with Hyatt and Pets at Home, where he was a board member through the company’s IPO. Latterly working as chief marketing officer with the sk:n Clinics group, the largest skin clinic firm in Europe, Gavin gained plenty of insight into the wellness market and the subscription business model.
But when it came to starting his own business, he saw all the benefits of an up-and-comer like The Massage Company over an established brand.
“I wanted to be in early. It means I can learn it from the outset and hopefully build out a strong area for myself that grows with the brand, I wanted to build my own network of sites.
“I like the idea that it’s still a young, entrepreneurial brand. Because it’s still growing, there are still prime territories available and being in early, to be able to work alongside the founders, is what I was looking for.
“As long as I can make the first centre work and prove the concept and trade profitably, I’d like to scale up to more sites.”
And Gavin says he’s already enjoying the change in scenery from his big-brand background.
“It’s completely different to the corporate world for sure! I’m finding it really empowering, it’s completely different and it’s just me at the moment, very different to that corporate platform I’ve been used to – but hopefully in 10 years that’s where TMC will be heading too.
“I think they’re investing in the right things but it’s nice that it’s still small enough now for me to be able to pick Charlie and Elliot’s brains on a daily basis.”
Culture matters
Gavin knew he’d found the right franchise when he started getting to the ethos of The Massage Company’s two founders.
He says: “The final thing that proved this was the right choice for me was that I had a lengthy discussion with Elliot on company culture and the importance of training and growth. After that I was convinced they were committed to building a strong training academy and building a culture that would keep people around.
“If you want to find expertise now, you need to build a business that people want to stay part of, and I think Charlie and Elliot are passionate about that too, they really care about it. I want to build a business that will align with that approach.
“Clearly I’ll have to build my own culture, but being able to tap into something that is constantly helping my therapists grow and learn, whilst being looked after – that’s a game-changer given the labour market situation across all sectors.”
"This is a business that has embraced social media and has brought what was once considered a luxury to the mainstream. Their work ethic is incredible and the focus on customer service gives very positive experience on Camberley Town Centre as a whole."
"Great service, great team, amazing value. An innovative business."
"Best customer experience, and I've had loads of massages. The branding and idea is really good and I think they'll make a big success of this."
"They are the first membership based massage company in the UK and are so professional with a very friendly team who are more than happy to help with anything."
The Massage Company | Join A Revolution in Wellbeing
The Massage Company | Franchise Introduction
The Massage Company | Franchisee Case Study
