With more than 35 years of experience franchising with Dunkin’ Brands and a health and fitness club concept, Kate Carroll brings a wealth of experience to an already dynamic Heyday leadership team.
Heyday, the brand reinventing skincare by taking the facial out of the spa and making it more accessible to the masses, is less than 18 months into its franchising journey. But it doesn’t act like it. Heyday’s philosophy since day one of entering franchising has been to treat itself as an established franchise brand, bringing on the best and brightest leaders from diverse backgrounds to help the brand reach its ambitious goals.
Kate Carroll, Heyday’s new vice president of franchise operations, is now one of those leaders.
“I feel like Heyday is the best-kept secret in skincare,” Carroll said. “There's nothing really like it out there. And the opportunity to come here and build a growth engine to support franchisees and help them build their businesses — and build the Heyday brand and cement it across the U.S. — it’s just a phenomenal opportunity.”
Carroll has spent most of her career in operations, first at Dunkin’ Brands, where she spent nearly 30 years, then with MOVATI Athletic, a network of health and fitness clubs in Canada where she most recently served as chief operating officer.
At Dunkin’, Carroll had a variety of responsibilities - from working on Dunkin’s unit economic model to putting together operations playbooks for the company to help standardize and develop the Dunkin’ way of doing business. As a brand pivots from company-owned locations to franchises, she says, it must be clear about what its standards and guidelines are and what goals the collective is striving to meet. And Carroll led that charge for Dunkin’, helping scale franchise growth for the iconic franchise.
In addition to her vast experience at Dunkin’, her experience at MOVATI also has uniquely set her up for success at Heyday.
“MOVATI really helped position me for Heyday because in fitness, when you open up a health club, you do a pre-sale where you're trying to sell memberships before you even open your doors — something Heyday has had great success with,” Carroll said. “And the fact that it's a membership model like Heyday is a huge benefit because there’s a lot of continuity between the two brands being membership-based and utilizing a reservation model.”
Heyday’s membership model is just one of the ways in which the brand is blazing a trail in personalized, affordable skincare services. The brand is redefining the $7 billion skincare industry by providing its customers with monthly facials as part of their everyday wellness routine, instead of a once-in-awhile indulgence.
By taking the facial out of the spa, Heyday has made the facial experience more accessible, helping consumers achieve their skincare goals with the help of talented, expert estheticians. In doing so, the brand is changing how we take care of our skin and building the future of the skincare industry for the modern consumer.
As Heyday looks to grow its number of members and number of locations, Carroll will play a significant role in helping the brand get there. In her role as VP of franchise operations, she will head up Heyday’s owned-and-operated shops — of which the brand has 10 — as well as all Heyday’s franchised locations. So as new stores open across the country, Carroll will build the support team that will provide Heyday’s franchise partners with everything they need to be successful.
“I would put Heyday’s franchise partner support team up against any out there,” Carroll said. “Our new shop opening team is tethered to our franchisees from the time they sign their franchise agreement, all the way up to their shop opening and beyond. I cannot even believe how much Heyday puts into franchise partner happiness. It’s a white-glove service. I've never experienced a support model quite like it.”
Carroll now has the opportunity to be a part of that white-glove service for franchisees as a part of Heyday’s leadership team.
“It is a small and mighty team,” Carroll said. “I can't wait to work with the talent that's already there to optimize what we're already doing — perfect it, optimize it and simplify it in whatever way I can — and then continue to build so we can keep growing this incredible brand and pace ourselves well with our franchise partners.”
Heyday’s startup costs range between $768,300 to $1,012,300, depending on which market the store is located. Other factors like design, configuration and labor costs will also impact the total investment. Click here to see the full cost breakdown.
