Great Clips Franchisee Sanjay Mehrotra is Conquering the Edmonton Market

Sanjay Mehrotra may be a veteran Great Clips franchisee with 10 locations, but he has no plans to slow down.

Originally, Mehrotra decided to franchise with Great Clips after a 23-year career in the corporate world. He wanted to make a career change and was looking at different opportunities when Great Clips came into the picture. His work in the finance sector more than prepared him to franchise with the haircare brand.

“I was in the corporate world for 23 years and decided to retire from that,” Mehrotra said. “My role was training financial planners - motivating and guiding them.”

Today, he manages approximately 75 employees and his locations serve nearly 3,000 customers per week.

Mehrotra joined the Great Clips system in 2001 by purchasing Great Clips’ first and only salon in the Edmonton market at the time.

“When I bought that first salon, there wasn’t brand awareness in Alberta,” Mehrotra said. “Over time, though, the brand developed, and more Great Clips salons started opening up in the market, so with the increased awareness, I made the decision to expand.”

Mehrotra first heard about Great Clips the old-fashioned way — through word-of-mouth from the existing franchisee. The main selling point of Great Clips for Mehrotra was the proven systems used by the brand.

Mehrotra has been a valuable addition to the Great Clips franchise system.

“Sanjay is growth focused,” Great Clips Director of Operations, Canada Craig Touchie said. “He has successfully increased the size of his organization and continues to find ways to improve operations by ensuring strong brand delivery in his salons. As the local Co-Op President, he works closely with neighboring franchisees to build awareness for Great Clips and ensures consistency within the market. Sanjay understands the importance of keeping it simple and being engaged in his business. His long term view is focused on increasing volume and serving as many customers as possible in the Edmonton market.”

In addition to serving as many customers as possible in Edmonton, Mehrotra consistently gives back to the community. His organization recently partnered with a local junior hockey team, the Edmonton Oil Kings, to raise money for Stollery Children’s Hospital. Mehrotra’s salons are also involved in fundraising efforts for Stollery.  In five years, they’ve raised more than $10,000 for the organization.

Founded in 1982 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Great Clips has grown to become a household name, with more than 4,400 locations in the United States and Canada. Most recently, the brand nabbed the eighth spot on Entrepreneur magazine’s annual Franchise 500 list for 2019.

Such a large franchise system might seem highly impersonal, but the brand manages to offer its franchisees many personal touches.

“Corporate team members come to our salons on a quarterly basis to provide support,” Mehrotra said.

The Great Clips corporate team has also enjoyed working with Mehrotra.

“Sanjay is a collaborative franchisee,” Touchie said. “He openly provides the corporate team with feedback and ideas while understanding the need to execute and deliver the brand in his salons. He challenges us, and pushes us to be better while remaining open to Great Clips doing the same.”

Together with his business partners, Mehrotra is looking at future growth opportunities Great Clips.

“Edmonton is a growing city, so it has a lot of opportunities for future expansion,” he said.