European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

As a seasoned investor, you know the personal care sector is fiercely competitive, so how has European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) managed to carve out a dominant niche as the leading franchisor of out-of-home waxing services in the U.S.? This is a business built on a resilient franchise model, one that is projected to generate system-wide sales of up to $960 million in fiscal year 2025 and operates over 1,000 centers across 44 states. You need to understand the mechanics of a company that, even in a transitional year, delivered a 9.6% increase in Adjusted EBITDA to $20.2 million in Q3 2025, plus its proprietary product strategy with Comfort Wax®. Let's look at the history, ownership, and precise revenue streams that make this personal care powerhouse tick.

European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) History

You're looking for the foundational story of European Wax Center, Inc., and honestly, it's a classic American entrepreneurial tale born from a smart observation. The company didn't start as a big corporate idea; it was a focused pivot from a family salon business. The founders saw a single service-waxing-thriving even during the 2001 recession, while other salon services struggled. That's a clear signal you don't ignore.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Year established

The company was officially established in 2004.

Original location

The first center opened in Aventura, Florida.

Founding team members

The company was founded by siblings David Coba and Joshua Coba.

Initial capital/funding

The initial funding came from the Coba family's savings, enough to open the first location and refine their proprietary waxing technique and customer service model.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The company's trajectory wasn't a straight line; it was shaped by a few defintely pivotal strategic decisions that injected capital and accelerated scale. The Coba brothers' early focus on a proprietary, less-painful Comfort Wax™ was an important product differentiator, but the business model changes were the true game-changers.

• The Franchise Pivot (2008): Moving to a highly franchised model was the masterstroke. It allowed the brand to grow to over 1,000 centers across 44 states by late 2025 without the massive capital expenditure of corporate-owned locations, which is why they are now the dominant market player.
• Private Equity Infusion: The successive investments from firms like General Atlantic and Eurazeo provided the war chest needed to professionalize the back-end-think technology, training, and national marketing-turning a successful regional chain into a national powerhouse.
• The 2025 Strategic Reset: This year is crucial because it shifted focus from aggressive unit growth to network health. Management is prioritizing same-store sales and franchisee profitability, which is a mature, necessary move. The full-year 2025 outlook reflects this realism, with expected system-wide sales between $940 million and $950 million and total revenue between $205 million and $209 million.

The company is currently executing on this reset, with Q3 2025 showing a GAAP net income of $5.4 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $20.2 million, proving the core business remains profitable even amid network optimization. You can dig deeper into the current state of the business by Breaking Down European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

So, the next step for anyone tracking EWCZ is to monitor Q4 2025 results, specifically looking for confirmation that the net center closings are within the narrowed guidance of 23 to 28, which will be the first real test of the new strategy's effectiveness. Owner: Investment Analyst.

European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) Ownership Structure

European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) operates as a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ exchange, but its ownership structure is heavily influenced by private equity, which is common for companies that have recently gone public (IPO). The company's governance is primarily steered by a major institutional shareholder, General Atlantic Service Company, L.P., alongside a substantial pool of other institutional investors.

European Wax Center, Inc.'s Current Status

You should know that European Wax Center, Inc. is a publicly traded franchisor, trading under the ticker EWCZ on the NASDAQ. This status means its financial and operational data is transparent via SEC filings, but its decision-making is still significantly concentrated.

As of November 2025, the company has a market capitalization of approximately $210 million, with shares trading around $3.80. For the 2025 fiscal year, management has reaffirmed its outlook, expecting system-wide sales to be between $940 million and $950 million, with full-year revenue guidance between $205 million and $209 million. That's a clear map of their near-term financial reality.

European Wax Center, Inc.'s Ownership Breakdown

The company's ownership is dominated by institutional money, which holds the vast majority of the stock. This concentration means that a few large funds and private equity firms have significant sway over strategic decisions, including the Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ).

Here's the quick math on who controls the shares, based on the most recent 13F filings as of late 2025:

Honestly, when you see institutional ownership over 80%, you know the stock price movements are defintely going to be driven by large block trades and institutional sentiment, not so much by the retail crowd.

European Wax Center, Inc.'s Leadership

The company is currently guided by a refreshed leadership team, with several key executives having joined in 2025. This new team is focused on a pivotal year of transformation to accelerate growth fundamentals.

• Chris Morris: Serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), appointed in January 2025, bringing over 25 years of experience in consumer brands.
• Thomas "Tom" Kim: Chief Financial Officer (CFO), joined in April 2025, with a long history of financial expertise and guiding organizations through financial transformations.
• Angela Jaskolski: Chief Operating Officer (COO), joined in August 2025, overseeing strategic and operational models.
• Chris Andrews: Chief Information and Digital Officer, joined in March 2025, focusing on IT and strategic technology initiatives.

This turnover means the new executive team is still establishing its long-term track record, so you should watch their execution on the 2025 sales outlook very closely. Finance: monitor the adjusted EBITDA outlook, which remains unchanged at $69 million to $71 million for the full year 2025.

European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) Mission and Values

European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) defines its purpose beyond just a service, aiming to be a lifestyle brand that builds unapologetic confidence in its guests. This focus on internal well-being is the cultural foundation for a business that expects full-year 2025 system-wide sales to be between $940 million and $950 million.

You're not just buying a wax; you're investing in how you feel, so the company's core purpose is tied directly to the emotional outcome of its services, not just the physical one. This is a smart way to drive loyalty and repeat business, which is why engagement in their Wax Pass program remains strong.

European Wax Center's Core Purpose

The company's cultural DNA is built on four core values, which guide everything from franchisee support to the experience in the more than 1,000 centers across 45 states.

• We Care About Each Other: Prioritizing a supportive environment for associates and guests.
• We Do the Right Thing: Upholding ethical standards, which is defintely critical in a high-trust service business.
• We Delight Our Guests: Focusing on an unparalleled, professional personal care experience.
• We Have Fun While Being Awesome: Encouraging a positive, energetic workplace culture.

Official Mission Statement

The mission statement is less about hair removal and more about a transformation, which helps explain why they perform more than 23 million services per year.

A world full of people who feel their best, inside and out? Now that's a beautiful thing. As the experts in wax, we do our part by making sure every person who walks through our door leaves feeling confident - in us, in themselves, in the idea that their "best self" has been there all along.

Vision Statement

The vision sets an aspirational goal to transcend the service category and become a recognized, influential brand in the broader beauty space.

An iconic lifestyle beauty brand that reveals you by revealing beautiful skin, and that does good by championing unapologetic confidence.

This vision is backed by solid financial execution, with the company reconfirming its full-year 2025 Adjusted EBITDA guidance at the midpoint of $70 million. That's a healthy margin that supports the brand-building investment needed to achieve an iconic status.

For a deeper dive into how this mission translates to the bottom line, check out Breaking Down European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

European Wax Center Slogan/Tagline

The company uses simple, action-oriented phrases in its marketing to connect the service to the feeling it provides.

Smooth is Just the Start.

This tagline neatly summarizes the value proposition: the physical result (smooth skin) is merely the gateway to the emotional benefit (confidence, feeling unstoppable). It's a clean one-liner.

European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) How It Works

European Wax Center operates as the leading franchisor and operator of out-of-home (OOH) waxing services in the United States, creating value by providing a consistently professional, high-quality, and efficient personal care experience across its network of over 1,000 centers. The company's financial model is asset-light, generating the majority of its revenue from the sale of proprietary products to its franchisees and through recurring royalty and marketing fees, which is a defintely stable setup.

European Wax Center's Product/Service Portfolio

The company's portfolio is built around a specialized service offering and a complementary line of proprietary retail products, all designed to deliver a premium, recurring guest experience. The core market is the diverse spectrum of US consumers seeking professional hair removal and skincare maintenance, from routine maintenance to specialized treatments.

European Wax Center's Operational Framework

The company operates primarily through a franchise model, which is the engine of its operational success and scalability. This model keeps capital expenditure low for the corporate entity while generating a predictable stream of recurring fees and product sales, which is smart. For the full fiscal year 2025, the company projects total revenue between $205 million and $209 million, largely derived from this structure.

• Franchise-Centric Revenue: The company generates revenue from three main sources: selling its proprietary wax and retail products to franchisees (historically the largest component), collecting ongoing royalty payments based on franchisee sales, and receiving marketing fund contributions.
• Supply Chain Control: The corporate entity maintains ownership of all retail product formulas and controls the supply chain for its proprietary Comfort Wax®, ensuring consistent quality and a high-margin revenue stream.
• Guest Loyalty Program: The Wax Pass program, a pre-paid service model, is a crucial driver of recurring revenue and guest retention, contributing to the fact that core guest and wax pass sales account for roughly 70% of total sales.
• Data-Driven Strategy: Management is focused on a 2025 strategic reset, emphasizing a data-rich marketing engine to refine acquisition messaging and improve guest frequency. They've already increased guest contactability via SMS or email from 38% to 60%.

Here's the quick math on profitability: the full-year 2025 Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be between $69 million and $71 million, showing the strong margin profile of the franchisor model even amidst a projected net closing of 23 to 28 centers for the year.

European Wax Center's Strategic Advantages

European Wax Center's competitive edge stems from a combination of scale, brand trust, and a specialized, repeatable service model that is difficult for competitors to replicate quickly. This is how they maintain market leadership. For more on the numbers, you should read Breaking Down European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

• Category Dominance and Brand Trust: The company was named one of America's Most Trusted Brands in 2025 and recognized as the #1 waxing franchise in Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 for the fourth consecutive year, which is a powerful moat.
• Proprietary Technology and Training: The exclusive Comfort Wax® formulation and standardized, professional training for wax specialists ensure a consistent, premium experience across all 1,053 centers, differentiating it from independent salons.
• Scale and Network Effect: With over 1,000 locations across 44 states, the brand benefits from economies of scale in marketing and supply chain, plus guests can use their services nationwide, enhancing the value of the Wax Pass.
• Resilient Financial Model: The asset-light franchisor structure provides a high Adjusted EBITDA margin and predictable revenue streams (royalties and product sales), insulating the corporate entity from most of the operational volatility at the unit level.

The company is still prioritizing improving four-wall profitability for its franchisees, focusing on operational excellence to drive same-store sales growth, which is projected to be flat to up 1.0% for the full year 2025. That's a tight focus for a challenging macro environment.

European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) How It Makes Money

European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) primarily makes money through a high-margin, asset-light franchising model. The company collects recurring fees-royalties and marketing contributions-from its vast network of franchised centers, plus it generates significant revenue by selling its proprietary wax and branded pre- and post-wax products to these same franchisees.

This structure means EWCZ is less exposed to the day-to-day operating costs of each location and more focused on brand strength, franchisee support, and product distribution. For the full fiscal year 2025, the company expects to generate total revenue between $205 million and $209 million, a clear indicator of the model's scale and stability despite a challenging macro environment.

European Wax Center's Revenue Breakdown

To understand the financial engine, you need to look at the three core revenue streams. The bulk of the company's reported revenue comes from supplying its franchisees with the proprietary Comfort Wax® and other retail products, but the high-margin fees are the true sign of a healthy franchise system. Here is the breakdown based on the company's Q3 2025 results.

The largest single stream is Product Sales, which is the wholesale revenue from selling the patented wax and branded retail products to its over 1,050 franchised locations. This stream is under pressure, posting a 3.4% year-over-year decline in Q3 2025, reflecting lower wholesale volume. Royalty and Marketing fees, which represent the true value of the franchise brand, are holding steady or growing slightly, which is why the company's gross margin is actually improving-a higher-margin mix is compensating for the drop in product sales volume.

Business Economics

The economics of European Wax Center are built on a recurring service model, which is the gold standard for stability in consumer services. The company is a franchisor, meaning it collects fees without bearing the full operating costs of the individual centers.

• Royalty Fee: Franchisees pay a standard 6% royalty fee on their gross sales of services, net of retail product sales. This fee is the direct financial link to the health of the system-wide sales, which the company projects will be between $940 million and $950 million for all of fiscal year 2025.
• Marketing Fee: An additional 3% of gross sales is collected for the national and regional advertising fund. This mandatory contribution ensures a consistent, well-funded brand presence across all 44 states where the centers operate.
• Customer Retention: The core of the business is the 'Wax Pass' membership program, which drives high customer frequency and predictable revenue. The focus is on turning one-time visitors into repeat guests, and the company is seeing stable retention quarter-over-quarter in 2025.
• Unit Economics: The initial investment for a new franchisee ranges from approximately $328,000 to $897,000, a manageable cost for a recurring service business. This relatively low barrier to entry, combined with the brand's focus on improving four-wall profitability, encourages multi-unit ownership.

Here's the quick math on the brand value: a 6% royalty on a nearly $1 billion system-wide sales base is a massive, high-margin revenue stream for the corporate entity. You can read more about the brand's guiding principles here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ).

European Wax Center's Financial Performance

As of November 2025, the financial performance shows a business that is consolidating and improving efficiency, even as it navigates a slight contraction in its physical footprint. The company's reaffirmed full-year 2025 outlook signals a clear focus on profitability over aggressive unit growth.

• Full-Year Revenue: The company guides for total revenue at the midpoint of $207 million for fiscal year 2025. This is a slight decrease from the prior year, but it reflects a strategic shift toward quality over quantity in its franchisee network.
• Adjusted EBITDA and Margin: Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be around the midpoint of $70 million for the full year. This implies a strong EBITDA margin of approximately 33.8% (calculated as $70M/$207M), demonstrating excellent cost discipline and operational leverage.
• Same-Store Sales (SSS): Same-store sales growth is projected to be flat to up 1.0% for the full year 2025, a modest but positive trend that indicates the core business is resilient and guest frequency is holding up.
• Net Income: Adjusted Net Income is forecasted to be between $31 million and $33 million for fiscal 2025. This is a defintely healthy profit for an asset-light franchisor.
• Center Closures: The company has narrowed its anticipated net center closures for 2025 to between 35 and 40, an improvement from earlier estimates, showing that strategic initiatives to support underperforming franchisees are starting to work.

European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) Market Position & Future Outlook

European Wax Center, Inc. is the clear market leader in the specialized out-of-home waxing segment, but its future outlook hinges on successfully executing a strategic reset in 2025 to stabilize its franchisee base and drive new guest traffic. The company is positioned to leverage its brand dominance and scale, with a reaffirmed full-year 2025 system-wide sales outlook of $940 million to $950 million, but it must navigate the near-term risk of center closures and the long-term threat of laser hair removal technology.

Competitive Landscape

In the highly fragmented personal care market, European Wax Center, Inc. holds a dominant position in the franchised waxing space, operating over 1,000 centers nationwide. They are the category's biggest player, but the real competitive pressure comes from the substitution threat of permanent hair removal alternatives like laser. Here's the quick math on the key players in the specialized hair removal landscape.

Opportunities & Challenges

The company is treating 2025 as a pivotal year of transformation, focusing on strengthening fundamentals before a planned return to net positive unit growth by the end of 2026. The strategic priorities are clear: drive traffic, improve profitability for franchisees, and expand with discipline. Breaking Down European Wax Center, Inc. (EWCZ) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors shows you why this reset is defintely necessary.

Industry Position

European Wax Center, Inc. is the undisputed leader in the franchised waxing category, a position cemented by being named the #1 waxing franchise on Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 list for the fourth consecutive year in 2025. Its strength lies in a highly repeatable service model and a loyal customer base, with over 23 million services performed annually. Still, the company is not immune to broader economic pressures and the shift in consumer preferences toward permanent solutions.

• Scale Advantage: With over 1,000 centers across 45 states, the company benefits from significant economies of scale in marketing and supply chain.
• Brand Trust: Named one of America's Most Trusted Brands in 2025 by USA Today, which is critical in a high-touch personal service business.
• Unit Economics Focus: The current strategy is a defensive move, prioritizing the health of the existing network-improving franchisee unit economics is the only way to mitigate closure risk long-term.

The key action for investors is monitoring the pace of net center closures and the same-store sales metric. If same-store sales can hit the high end of the 0% to 1% guidance, it suggests the marketing and operational resets are gaining traction.