FRANCHISE·WATCH·DESK

From the filed FDD — automated extraction, check the source

2026 FDD

PHENIX SALON SUITES

Salon suites · parent company: not identified

Phenix Salon Suites operates salon-suite facilities that lease private, fully equipped studios to independent beauty professionals such as hairstylists, estheticians, and nail techs. A franchisee builds out a large suite location and acts as landlord and manager, collecting weekly rents from tenant professionals rather than serving salon customers directly.

PHENIX SALON SUITES net unit count grew 11.5% over 2023–2025 per its FDD Item 20.

New to franchising? Start here

A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.

Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. Most numbers on this page come from that document; others come from federal SBA loan records and labor and census data, each labelled with its source:

  • Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
  • Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
  • Item 20 — how many locations opened, transferred and left the system, the main basis for our verdict, which rates how strong the disclosed record is, or says when the system is too new, the filing too old, or the disclosure too thin to judge.

Our rating · opinion

Strong disclosed record

Enough units and history to judge, and the operating record is good. Units grew 11% (2023–2025: 375 → 418); the fiscal 2025 exit rate was 1.1%, below the 3.8% median across 19 comparable systems (beauty & personal care).

Exit rate · fiscal 2025

1.1%

vs 3.8% median across 19 comparable systems (beauty & personal care)

Cost to open

$923K–$2.3M

Item 7 total investment range

SBA loan losses

Too few to rate

3 seasoned resolved loans; 30 needed

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Data as of 2026-10-29. Figures come from PHENIX SALON SUITES's public FDD filings (latest: MN 2026, extracted 2026-07-29) and SBA FOIA loan records (through FY2026), extracted by us and possibly containing errors. The rating is our opinion, not investment, legal, or tax advice. Franchisor or owner and see something wrong? Report a correction — we review every request.

Buying an existing PHENIX SALON SUITES? Transfer fee 50% of then-current standard initial franchise fee, resale record and asking-price check →

What each source says

FDD record · SBA loans · model · auditor

Our answer: Strong disclosed record

The sources broadly agree, and the verdict follows the FDD's operating record.

FDD record · Item 20

Strong operating record

Units grew 11% (2023–2025: 375 → 418); exit rate 1.1% (fiscal 2025) vs 3.8% median.

SBA loans · vs same-year loans

Too few seasoned loans

3 resolved loans approved by FY2020; 30 needed.

Modeled risk

Lower risk

Directional only — too few seasoned loans to check it.

Auditor opinion · Item 21

Clean opinion

Unqualified audit, 2026 FDD. Says nothing about franchisee results.

Behind the verdict

the record, factor by factor · Item 20

hi-1.0.0
Net unit growth41%

latest consecutive years · Item 20 Table 1

Strong
Exit quality29%

terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3

Strong
Transfer / churn18%

transfers vs. base · Table 3

Strong
Promise-keeping12%

actual vs. projected openings · Table 5

Strong
Transparencynot in verdict

Item 19 disclosure + completeness · shown, not counted in the verdict

Strong

Systemwide units

2023–2025

+11.5%
375202339920244182025

Survival record

FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year

In fiscal 2025, 4 of 367 franchised outlets left the system — an exit rate of 1.1% (fiscal 2025), vs a 3.8% median across 19 comparable systems (beauty & personal care). An exit is not a failure: this counts terminations, non-renewals and "ceased — other reasons" as reported, and excludes transfers to new owners.

Show the outlet tables ↓
Status (FTC)202320242025
Outlets at start338375399
Opened372517
Transfers639
Terminations000
Non-renewals000
Reacquired by franchisor21211
Ceased — other reasons124
Outlets at end375399418
Net change+37+24+19

The franchisor's own finances

FDD ITEM 21 · AUDITED STATEMENTS · 2026 FDD

Full read →

DJJCPA, LLC gave an unmodified (clean) opinion on the statements in the 2026 FDD; revenue rose 22% from FY2023 to FY2025.

This is the company selling the franchise, not any franchisee. A clean opinion means the statements are fairly presented — not that the business is healthy.

Audit opinion

Unmodified (clean) opinion

DJJCPA, LLC · p. 175

Revenue · FY2025

$6.5M

p. 178 · matched to statement

Net income · FY2025

$1.9M

p. 178 · matched to statement

Where FY2025 revenue came from

87% royalties

12% initial / development fees

Show the statement figures ↓
Fiscal yearFY2023FY2024FY2025
Total revenue$5.3Mp. 178 · matched to statement$5.8Mp. 178 · matched to statement$6.5Mp. 178 · matched to statement
Royalty revenue$4.2Mp. 178 · matched to statement$5.0Mp. 178 · matched to statement$5.7Mp. 178 · matched to statement
Initial / development feesline: Franchise Fees$922Kp. 178$660Kp. 178$754Kp. 178
Net income (loss)$1.6Mp. 178 · matched to statement$1.7Mp. 178 · matched to statement$1.9Mp. 178 · matched to statement
Cash at year end$914Kp. 177$2.1Mp. 177$1.8Mp. 177

The lender's view

SBA 7(a)/504 loan outcomes · compared with franchise loans of the same years

Banks have made 3 SBA-backed loans to PHENIX SALON SUITES franchisees since 2014. Only 3 of its loans approved by FY2020 have resolved — fewer than the 30 we need to compare it fairly with other franchise loans, so we don't rate it.

All-time, 0 of 3 resolved loans charged off (0.0%). That raw figure mixes every approval year since 2014 — loans made in 2006–08 failed at several times the rate of loans made in 2010–13 across all franchises — so it is shown as evidence, not as the score.

Loss vs same-year loans

—

3 seasoned resolved · 30 needed

All-time charge-off · raw

0.0%

0 of 3 resolved, every approval year

Loss given default

—

charged-off $ ÷ approved $, defaulted loans

Avg. loan · FY2020+

$710,500

what recent franchisees borrowed

Median time to default

—

shown with 10+ defaults

Lenders · FY21+ vs FY16–20

0 vs 2

distinct banks — fewer than FY16–20 (loan volume and SBA name coding affect this)

Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%) · dashed line = all franchise loans that year

SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO PHENIX SALON SUITES BY SBA FRANCHISE NAME/CODE · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL · EXPECTED = SAME-YEAR RATE ACROSS ALL SBA FRANCHISE LOANS, LOANS ≥ ~6 YEARS OLD

What it costs — and what it drags

FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty

Buying in means a $52,500 franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $923K–$2.3M (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.

To open (Item 7)

$923K–$2.3M

all-in investment range

Franchise fee (Item 5)

$52,500

upfront, one-time

Royalty (Item 6)

See Item 6

not a single flat % — read the fee table

This is not profit. It covers what the FDD fixes: what you put in, and the royalty you owe on sales. Your take-home depends on stylist or technician pay, rent, product, and the months to breakeven, none of which the FDD fixes for your unit (some Item 19s include cost data — read it).

Build a real pro-forma for PHENIX SALON SUITES with a buyer-paid CPA

How the earnings claim is built

FDD ITEM 19 · BASIS · 2026 FDD

The headline figure is Annual Gross Revenue (Disclosed Financial Locations, Combined) for FY ended Dec 31, 2025, for 190 of 329 units, leaving out ownership change within 12 months, open < 18 months, company-owned and others. The mean is 12% above the median, so a minority of high-volume units pulls the average up.

Graded on three things the filing states: coverage (2 points if the figure covers at least 75% of the units it is compared with, 1 point for 50–75%), centre (2 points if it prints both a median and a mean, 1 for one of them), and costs (2 points for costs through a profit line or full cost detail, 1 for some cost items). 5–6 points = More complete, 3–4 = Partial, 0–2 = Limited. The grade describes the disclosure, not the business.

PartialCovers 190 of 329 units (58%) · median and mean · some costs
Show the basis ↓
What is measuredAnnual Gross Revenue (Disclosed Financial Locations, Combined) (gross sales)
PeriodFY ended Dec 31, 2025
Whose resultsFranchised outlets
Units included190 of 329 Eligible Franchised Locations
Left out
  • ownership change within 12 months (9)
  • open < 18 months (31)
  • company-owned (49)
  • did not respond to data request (139)
Average (mean)$449K
Median$400K
Mean vs medianmean 12.2% above median
Met or beat the average82, or 43.2%
Costs shownSome cost items only
Wherep. 67 (Item 19 runs pp. 64–70)
The filing's words“this Item 19 discloses the results of 190 franchised locations that responded to our request for information with respect to gross revenues and adjusted EBITDA (the "Disclosed Financial Locations")”

Modeled risk

FDD Risk Score · a prediction from disclosure and loan-file features

Lower risk · directional · modeled

The model puts this brand in its lower-risk band — but this brand has too few seasoned SBA loans to check the score against, so read it as a band, not a number.

Risk percentile

Lower risk

Directional · no point estimate

Modeled · vs same-year loans

band only

too few seasoned loans to check

Top drivers: Item 20 exit rate (lowers) · Investment ceiling (log) (lowers) · System size (log units) (lowers) · Item 3 litigation (log) (raises). Too few seasoned SBA loans to check the score — read it as a band. A linear scorecard trained on brands' vintage-adjusted SBA loss records; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.

Public records

Bankruptcy, closure & federal court records · coverage is selective · dockets are not scored

We have no verified public-record signals published for PHENIX SALON SUITES. This is not evidence that no events exist. Check PACER, the FDD's Item 3 (litigation) and Item 4 (bankruptcy), and recent news yourself.

8 questions to ask a PHENIX SALON SUITES franchisee

Built from this brand's own disclosures · take it to your validation calls

The franchisor will give you a list of owners to call. Most buyers ask whether they like it. These questions come from what PHENIX SALON SUITES has disclosed. Each one carries the number it came from, so you can check the answer against the record.

  1. 01

    PHENIX SALON SUITES’ own Item 20 shows 4 of 367 franchised outlets left the system in fiscal 2025 — about 1.1%. Do you know any of those owners, and do you know why they left?

    A franchisor will call these “transitions.” An owner three doors down usually knows whether they sold at a profit or handed the keys back.

    FDD Item 20 · FY2025

  2. 02

    9 units transferred to new owners in fiscal 2025. When you look at those, were they people cashing out a good business — or getting out of a bad one?

    Item 20 counts transfers as neutral, but a transfer can be a good sale or a reluctant exit — the filing does not say which.

    FDD Item 20 · FY2025

  3. 03

    PHENIX SALON SUITES makes an earnings claim in Item 19. Does your unit look like that number — and do you know which units they included to build it?

    Item 19 is legal to build from a flattering subset. Ask whether they excluded new units, closed units, or company stores.

    FDD Item 19 · 2026

  4. 04

    How many months did it take to cover your own costs, and how much cash did you burn getting there?

    Ramp-to-breakeven working capital is the most underestimated line in any franchise purchase, and the most common reason otherwise-good units fail.

    Not disclosed in any FDD — ask an owner

  5. 05

    Item 3 discloses 1 legal matter. Do you know what it was about, and was it brought by franchisees?

    Franchisee-brought suits over territory, fees or support tell you how the franchisor behaves when there's a disagreement.

    FDD Item 3 · 2026

  6. 06

    What does the franchisor charge for that you didn't expect — required tech fees, mandatory remodels, approved-supplier pricing?

    Required spending appears across Items 6, 8 and 11 rather than in one place, so buyers routinely miss the total.

    FDD Items 6, 8, 11

  7. 07

    If your agreement came up for renewal tomorrow at current terms, would you sign again?

    The single most predictive question you can ask. A hesitation is the answer.

    Ask every owner you speak to

  8. 08

    Who else should I call — including someone who left?

    The franchisor's list is curated by definition. Former franchisees are where the unflattering truth lives, and current owners usually know how to reach them.

    Ask every owner you speak to

Want this as a checklist you can take to the calls?

I'll email you the printable version, and tell you if PHENIX SALON SUITES’ numbers move — a new filing, a rising exit rate, a distress signal. Unsubscribe in one click.

Before you sign anythingfree · 30 min · no commission

A broker is usually paid by the franchisor to place you. I'm paid only by you, never by a franchisor you're considering — and the job is pressure-testing PHENIX SALON SUITES’ numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.

Don Drummond, CPA — Virginia #43775 · what I charge

Book a free 30-minute call →
Own or owned a PHENIX SALON SUITES — or represent the franchisor?no appointment · read by a person

This page is what buyers see before they call you for validation. If the record above is wrong — or right in a way the numbers can't show — say so. Franchisors: send corrections with the page reference and we will review them against the filing and update or annotate the page. Corrections are checked against the filings; nothing you write is published with your name unless you agree to it.

PHENIX SALON SUITES franchise questions, answered from the filings

How many PHENIX SALON SUITES franchised outlets left the system last year?

In PHENIX SALON SUITES's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2025), 4 of 367 franchised outlets left the system — an exit rate of 1.1% — compared with a 3.8% median across 19 comparable systems (beauty & personal care) tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons" as the franchisor reported them; it excludes transfers to new owners. The FDD does not say why each outlet left, and an exit is not the same as a failure.

How much does a PHENIX SALON SUITES franchise cost?

Per PHENIX SALON SUITES's 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $52,500 (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $923K–$2.3M (Item 7).

Does PHENIX SALON SUITES disclose earnings (Item 19)?

Yes — PHENIX SALON SUITES makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2026 FDD, reporting a median unit volume of $400K. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.