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Health and wellness franchise Hand &amp; Stone Massage and Facial Spa has ranked on Franchise Times&rsquo; &ldquo;Fast &amp; Serious&rdquo; List for 2019, coming in at <a href="http://www.franchisetimes.com/January-2019/Blaze-Pizza-tops-this-years-Fast-Serious-list-our-annual-ranking-of-the-40-smartest-growing/Fast-Serious-11-20/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=hand-stone-massage-and-facial-spa-ranks-no-13-on-franchise-times-fast-serious-list-2709036" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">No. 13</a>. The annual &ldquo;Fast &amp; Serious&rdquo; compilation ranks the smartest-growing franchises over a three-year period across 10 data points including dollar sales growth, percentage unit growth, percentage sales growth and other factors.

Bob McQuillan, Hand &amp; Stone&rsquo;s VP of Franchise Development, pointed to a number of factors he attributes to the brand&rsquo;s inclusion on the list, including an outstanding leadership team, operational excellence and a powerful in-house advertising agency.

&ldquo;Our organization has an outstanding leadership team that has put a plan in place, not only for marketing, advertising and sales in order to bring business in, but also on the operational side,&rdquo; McQuillan said.

Hand &amp; Stone&rsquo;s leadership team, which includes CEO Todd Leff, Chief Marketing OfficerJack Bachinsky, Vice President of Real Estate Development Kris Smith and McQuillan, brings &ldquo;over 250 combined years in the franchising business&rdquo; to the brand, according to McQuillan.

&ldquo;The greatest fear for a franchisee is that they invest a ton of money and then don&rsquo;t know if they&rsquo;ll be able to drive a ton of traffic to their location,&rdquo; McQuillan said. &ldquo;Our ad agency, HSM (Hand &amp; Stone Marketing), means we have them covered. The agency can do anything we need on any medium&mdash;anything that&rsquo;s needed to drive traffic to a retail site like ours. That&rsquo;s our gold standard; that&rsquo;s what helps our franchisees sleep at night.&rdquo;

Since McQuillan started with the company in 2010, marketing has expanded to include targeted social media campaigns, which has had the intended effect of bolstering interest from a primarily female demographic.

&ldquo;Marketing on social media makes sense for our target client because a high percentage of our clients are females who follow female influencers, so we knew having brand ambassadors and spokespeople would be important to reaching that target market,&rdquo; McQuillan explained. As of early 2019, the brand has engaged Carli Lloyd, United States Olympic soccer player and FIFA Women&rsquo;s World Player of the Year (2016&ndash;2017) as a spokesperson and Lindsay Arnold, one of the premier dancers on ABC&rsquo;s Dancing with the Stars, as social media brand ambassador.

With all this at play, McQuillan says the company &ldquo;has the infrastructure to take this from 400 units to 600 or 700 and beyond.&rdquo;

Despite these proven-successful dimensions to Hand &amp; Stone&rsquo;s business, it&rsquo;s no secret that the spa industry is a popular space. How does Hand &amp; Stone distinguish itself to pull ahead from competitors time and again, as reflected on its &ldquo;Fast and Serious&rdquo; ranking?

&ldquo;Ten years ago, we saw that there was a need on the facial esthetic side of the business,&rdquo; McQuillan said. &ldquo;Now, we do massage, facials, hair removal and offer two skincare lines.&rdquo;

Hand &amp; Stone has found that offering skincare services drives more traffic to their locations, assuring their continued success. To spotlight that point of differentiation, the brand changed names, from Hand &amp; Stone, to Hand &amp; Stone Spa, to the Hand &amp; Stone Massage and Facial Spa that we know today.

&ldquo;We wanted to be top provider in facials in the industry, and we&rsquo;ve done that. There isn&rsquo;t a franchise in America that does what we do at our level,&rdquo; said McQuillan.

In terms of franchisee validation, McQuillan&mdash;who owns several Hand &amp; Stone locations with his wife, Denise&mdash;felt that the No. 13 ranking on the &ldquo;Fast &amp; Serious&rdquo; List spoke directly to the benefits of franchising with the brand.

&ldquo;When I came to Hand &amp; Stone, I came wanting to be a multi-unit franchisee. When I was doing my due diligence, I wanted to know, &lsquo;What kind of notoriety do they have?&rsquo;,&rdquo; McQuillan explained. &ldquo;Todd Leff, our CEO then and now, had been on Franchise 500 lists. I could see that. As a franchisee, you&rsquo;re looking for credibility beyond what the company tells you. If you can find that, it definitely lends credibility to brand&mdash;it makes you feel you&rsquo;re with an organization that knows what it&rsquo;s doing. So that third-party validation [from an industry publication] provides the brand the credibility and backing that prospective candidates are looking for.&rdquo;

Buoyed by strong sales and consistent operations&mdash;the brand &ldquo;hasn&rsquo;t closed a location in more than two years&rdquo; according to <a href="http://www.franchisetimes.com/January-2019/Blaze-Pizza-tops-this-years-Fast-Serious-list-our-annual-ranking-of-the-40-smartest-growing/Fast-Serious-11-20/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=hand-stone-massage-and-facial-spa-ranks-no-13-on-franchise-times-fast-serious-list-2709036" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Franchise Times</a>&mdash;Hand &amp; Stone is poised for strong growth in 2019.

&ldquo;We&rsquo;re focusing on the franchisee and making sure that we bring the right people into the organization,&rdquo; McQuillan explained. &ldquo;And then we&rsquo;re targeting regional growth with corresponding regional marketing campaigns. From a product perspective, we&rsquo;re continuing to focus a lot of our energy on the facial side of the business because it provides such a great opportunity to expand organically. And clients can also look forward to more modalities we&rsquo;re introducing, like light therapy, hydrafacials and decompression therapy to name a few.&rdquo;

As of the time of publication, the brand had 400-plus franchises in North America, across 30states.

While the 2020 &ldquo;Fast &amp; Serious&rdquo; list still remains a year out, it&rsquo;s safe to say that Hand &amp; Stone will make a strong showing.

Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa Ranks No. 13 on Franchise Times’ “Fast & Serious” List

1851 Franchise

VP of Franchise Development Bob McQuillan commends strong leadership, intentional marketing and a focus on skincare.

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