MULTIPLES vs INDEPENDENTS
MARKET TRENDS
A clear trend in our data this year is a shift away from independent, single-site boutique studios and towards multi-site brands – or certainly, growth in the latter rather than the former.
■ The independent market segment has seen a stabilisation in the number of boutique studios: 124 studios in 2023, one fewer than in 2018.
■ The multi-site market segment has seen a 31% increase in the number of boutique studios, up from 153 in 2018 to 200 in 2023.
Number of independent and multi-site boutique studios in London
200
200
Independent
Multi-site
153
150
125
124
100
50
0
2018
2023
businesses to succeed is to start to think about ways to pool their assets, driving economies of scale that will help them uplift the quality of their product, offer consistency to the customer and slowly regain price appreciation. It’s important to be remunerated in a way that creates a sustainable business and that allows you to become long-term viable. “I believe that joining bigger, more established businesses is the way to do that. Our vision is to do this under a Psycle umbrella.”
We are likely to see this shift towards multi-site brands accelerate in the future, as financial challenges lead more businesses to consolidate. In his interview on page 75, Psycle CEO David Watt explains: “I believe the future of boutique lies in the ability to reach scale. Consolidation under one brand represents a great opportunity to achieve that. “There are a large number of small operators that are running on survival right now, not able to invest in their people and not delivering a good enough product consistently… I believe the way for these
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LONDON BOUTIQUE STUDIO REPORT 2023
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