On Friday 17th March 2017 The Massage Company™ awarded a three centre multi-site Franchise Agreement to Taran & Sophie Bassi.

Taran said: “Sophie and I had been looking for a franchise business and when we started hearing about The Massage Company we knew straight away it was a unique and interesting business model. I knew if there was one near me then I would use it – which is a criteria we have been using when we looked around what was available. We needed to do our due diligence and we did explore other options but when something this successful comes along you have to jump in and we understand that we are the first which adds an extra level of excitement and also opportunity. We intend to open our initial three sites as soon as possible with the plan to open more after that.”

An entrepreneurial family with their own business in the city of London the husband and wife team closely match the profile of the first stateside franchisee’s of the Membership Based Massage Business.

Founder & Commercial Director responsible for franchising Elliot Walker said “We setup this business to franchise across the UK. To have built, opened, successfully traded and awarded our first multi-site franchise agreement within 12 months demonstrates the speed of roll out that can be achieved when you bring something new to the market. Taran & Sophie are a great example of taking first mover advantage which will pay dividends for them in the years to come.”

The Massage Company was the first Membership Based Massage Business (MBMB) outside of the US and is now the first worldwide MBMB to award a franchise.

The Massage Company sites are 2,000-3,000sq ft with 20 to 30 staff who all go through the rigorous TMC Training Academy Programme that guarantees that each and every customer receives a great massage. The membership model ensures that the customer receives their great massage at a great price at a time that is convenient to them – centres are open 9am to 9pm, 7 days a week. Walker says: “everything is now in place, the build programme, the systems, the Academy, the technology, the sales & marketing plans and our very experienced team – now we just need the venues for our franchisees.”

When asked about the problems of finding locations Walker says “In the leisure sector we are unique at the moment. The gyms are all struggling to find large venues as they are looking for the same sized units that aren’t available. We have a much smaller footprint and as yet no competition so we are in a very enviable position. We know the UK market, we’ve developed our MBMB technology for 2020 onwards and built a highly experienced team to deliver in each and every part of the business so the franchisees that join us early are at a real advantage.”

The property search is underway for Taran & Sophie with the UK’s leading property search agents CBRE who were responsible for the first site in Camberley.

Founder & Operational Director, Charlie Thompson said “The build up to opening starts now and myself and the onboarding team will ensure that we work with our new franchisee so each and every customer receives a high standard of massage. What the customer sees and experiences is simple – a really good quality massage, what goes into providing that is years of development that have been invested to optimise all operational areas of the business.”

Thompson & Walker have pulled together a strong team to deliver a successful roll out and the reviews online prove that the effort they and the Director of Massage Training John Holman have put into The Massage Company is being recognised by the customers and also the local business community – The Massage Company won two Best New Business Awards, one in Camberley and the second for Surrey in 2016.

Glowing five star reviews and full columns of bookings demonstrates how a business can grow an industry especially when you consider there were already 17 providers of massage in the area. TMC have added over 5,000 hours of capacity a month to the town. Their dedication to their team: from pay; staff development; training; to asking staff to choose their own shifts makes them sound like a Silicon Valley tech business. Maybe that is why a large number of their franchise enquiries are coming from people with business, IT and financial backgrounds.

As the team develop the UK market Thompson & Walker’s plans are also to bring MBMB to Europe and beyond. The Massage Company’s list of target countries is a closely guarded secret with openings likely in the near future.

The Massage Company is an industry first for the UK and if they can sustain their initial speed of growth and the quality that is evident so early on then this is probably the next big company in the franchise world that we will eventually see on every high street in the UK.