John Hewitt’s been busy. The co-founder of tax preparation giant Jackson Hewitt who later started Liberty Tax Service, Hewitt formed Loyalty Brands in 2018 and just bought his sixth brand.
The addition of Salty Dawg, a dog grooming concept, brings Loyalty Brands to eight franchises. The acquisition bolsters the pet division of Loyalty Brands, said Hewitt, as Salty Dawg joins mobile grooming business Zoomin Groomin.
“There wasn’t a lot of strategy when I first started,” said Hewitt of Loyalty Brands’ formation. “We started acquiring a lot of brands that didn’t fit together. Now we have accounting and tax, construction and the pet division.”
Salty Dawg, with two franchise locations in Texas and one in Georgia, launched in 2018 and began franchising in 2022. Founders Winn Claybaugh, John Kanski and Gary Ratner each have ties to hair and beauty school franchise Paul Mitchell School, and in July 2023 they hired Sally Facinelli as CEO to advance the expansion strategy.
Salty Dawg CEO Sally Facinelli joined the brand in 2023 and expects Loyalty Brands to help accelerate franchise growth.
Related: Salty Dawg Pet Salon Gets Dogs Ready for Red Carpet
Updates to the brand, such as the addition of a bakery and retail component and new “VIP” rooms for solo grooming sessions, were well underway by early 2024, said Facinelli, who started her career at Aussie Pet Mobile and brought nearly 30 years of franchise experience to the company. When Kanski died in March, however, the other founders decided to seek a strategic partner.
“Loyalty Brands has a great structure already set up,” said Facinelli. “When it was on its own, Salty Dawg was lacking in human capital. It was without a sales and marketing team, operations, franchise development. Loyalty Brands has all that and it was a great culture fit with John.”
Salty Dawg just rolled out an area representative program and has single and multi-unit operator options. The cost to open a pet salon ranges from $185,250 to $460,950; the average store size is 1,700 square feet.
“We’re going to be in a whole new place by this time next year,” said Facinelli as she noted Greg Thomas, a large Great Clips franchisee with more than 60 units, bought what was Salty Dawg’s corporate location in Atlanta and is looking to expand. “We are still an emerging brand and we definitely don’t know everything, but now we have so much power behind us.”
Hewitt was forced out of Liberty Tax in 2017 and later sued by the company as it alleged he tried to unfairly compete against Liberty after acquiring tax franchise ATAX in 2019. That lawsuit was settled in 2022.
John Hewitt formed Loyalty Brands in 2018.
After forming Loyalty Brands and buying ATAX, Hewitt in 2021 added home inspection franchise The Inspection Boys, Zoomin Groomin and healthcare-focused childhood education and kids programming concept Little Medical School. CR3 American Exteriors, which provides roofing and other exterior remodeling services, came in 2022, and that year Loyalty Brands started franchising its Loyalty Business Brokers concept.
An earlier partnership between Canadian business management brand Ledgers and Hewitt’s Loyalty Business Services led to a rebranding of LBS as Ledgers USA.
In the pet space, Hewitt said he sees ample opportunity to add more concepts, including pet waste pickup and dog walking and boarding.
“Our society has changed their opinion and relationship with pets dramatically over the last 10 years,” he said. “People in their 30s and 40s are adding pets instead of children. People are spending so much money on pets.”
With its brick-and-mortar retail presence, Salty Dawg complements Zoomin Groomin’s mobile focus, Hewitt continued. “When your pet is young, you have no problem loading them in the car” for grooming appointments, he said. “But as the pet ages, people will move more toward mobile grooming, so we capture both customers in that lifecycle.”
Hewitt expects to scale Salty Dawg just as he did Zoomin Groomin, which he noted had just two franchisees and four service vans when Loyalty Brands acquired it. It now has 140 vans.
“We’ll put the same machine behind Salty Dawg,” he said.
To help franchisees of any concept under Loyalty Brands drive sales and draw repeat customers, Hewitt stressed one impactful differentiator: “We call every customer.”
“After a dog has been groomed or a tax return is sent to the IRS, two days later, we call the customer,” he said. “Everyone texts or emails. We learned our customers love to be called. And our retention rate is 10 percent better than our competitors.”
Salty Dawg has two franchise locations open in Texas and one in Georgia.