It was on the “roadmap” for Scott Hoots to eventually take over QC Kinetix after he joined the regenerative medicine company in October of 2020 as chief operations officer—and the lone person on the executive team with any franchise experience.
“I work with three owners who are very entrepreneurial and they have a lot of projects they would like to tackle,” Hoots said, “so we always knew there would be a date where they would want to start focusing on other projects outside of QC Kinetix, and that date just happened to be earlier this year.”
Justin Crowell launched QC Kinetix in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2017 with Tyler Vail and Dr. Richard Shaffer as a regenerative medicine concept, providing treatments for various musculoskeletal and joint pain issues as an alternative to addictive pain medications and surgery.
They began franchising in 2020 and quickly grew. With the help of Hoots, QC Kinetix’s systemwide sales hit $8 million in 2020 from nine corporate clinics and grew to $27 million in 2021 with the addition of franchise locations, Crowell told Franchise Times earlier this year.
Now, the brand has 112 clinics open—all built and opened within 15 months—and has signed development agreements for more than 500 locations. But Hoots takes a lot more pride in making sure those agreements come to fruition than the sales process itself.
“So many companies love the sales, they love to sell and talk about development and all of that stuff, but the most important thing to us is that we help franchise owners get open and help them be successful,” he said.
All three founders will step away from running the day-to-day business but will continue to serve on the board of directors, and Dr. Schaffer will continue to lead the medical advisory committee, which will focus on the research, development and training of new treatments. QC Kinetix also recently hired Dr. Kenneth Barnes as director of research and development.
A new hair loss therapy will be rolled out by the end of 2022, Hoots said, and innovative treatments for low testosterone and sexual dysfunction will be added in the next two years.
Hoots’ top priority as CEO is investing in people to support franchise owners, which has been the brand’s biggest challenge. “We’ve done that heavily since the very beginning,” he said, but found that not everyone worked well in “an environment where there’s such rapid growth, so we were challenged by turnover and finding the right people to thrive in that environment.”
Hoots tapped Alex Zai, who has 34 years of experience in franchising, to replace him as chief operating officer. Zai started off as a franchisee of Pak Mail Centers of America and worked his way up to CEO, so “he has a unique perspective of both sides of the relationship, franchisor and franchisee,” Hoots noted.
Marc Weiss is QC Kinetix’s new chief financial officer, who is tasked with analyzing and improving unit level profitability, and Todd Maddocks was named general counsel.
Global expansion
QC Kinetix clinics are typically between 1,700 and 2,500 square feet and located in Class A office or medical space. The initial investment range is $159,030 to $300,230.
Hoots is also plotting international expansion, starting with the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Spain and Sweden. One of the main reasons why Hoots and his team identified those five countries is because “there is already an established acceptance of regenerative medicine in those countries, so we’re not reinventing the wheel,” he said.
“While the regenerative medicine industry is large and growing, it’s still relatively unknown to most people, so we’re spending lots of money and putting a lot of resources into helping move the entire needle for the industry.”
The global regenerative medicine industry is expected to reach $83.2 billion by 2030, according to an Allied Market Research report, driven largely by a greater focus on improving health during the pandemic.
Hoots hopes to make major strides in global expansion by the end of 2022, but noted his team is still in the process of evaluating markets and doesn’t “have anybody on the horn yet.”
Part of his growth strategy is to continue building credibility by supporting Dr. Barnes in publishing studies that support the use of regenerative medicine for musculoskeletal issues, hair growth and other areas, Hoots said.
“One of the benefits of expanding using the franchise model is with the large footprint of patients, we can really do some awesome studies to help move the needle in the industry,” Hoots added.
QC Kinetix clinics are typically between 1,700 and 2,500 square feet and located in Class A office or medical space. The initial investment range is $159,030 to $300,230.