Dakota London Franchise Cost, Revenue & Review 2026
- Investment
- $372K – $523K
- Disclosed sales
- partial, no system average
- SBA charge-off
- Not SBA-matched
Data from FDD filing
Analysis by FranchiseVerdict Research · Methodology
Dakota London is a beauty franchise operating luxury hair extension salons with premium hair and expert stylists. Franchisees run the salons, managing stylists, appointments, and retail.
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2026
A DAKOTA LONDON franchise requires a total initial investment of $372K – $523K, including a $50K franchise fee and an ongoing 7.0% royalty[2]. The 2025 FDD on file does not yield a unit-revenue figure we can publish. FranchiseVerdict grade: C (Average), an editorial assessment, not investment advice. Run a live ROI scan →
Limited operating history: franchising since 2024. A system this young has fewer than three years of Item 20 outlet history and rarely enough SBA loans for a charge-off rate, so its grade rests on less evidence than an established system's. Read its Item 20 tables and talk to its first franchisees before relying on the grade. Other new franchisors
Sources, dates and evidence
FDD issued: · Data extracted: · Last cited check: · Staleness risk: medium - issued 12 to 24 months ago; a newer filing is likely on file
Evidence: strong✓ Investment (Item 7)✓ Item 19 status✓ Units and owners (Item 20)✗ SBA loan coverage✓ Litigation (Item 3)✓ Financial statements (Item 21)✓ Franchisor identityhow this is scored5 of 6 headline figures on this page cite a page of the filing; the rest are marked “Not cited” beside the figure.
Overview
- Investment
- $372K – $523K
- 41st pct Personal Care…
- Avg gross sales
- N/A
- Company-owned only
- Royalty
- 7.0%
- 45th pct Personal Care…
- Units
- 3
- 9th pct Personal Care…
- SBA charge-off
- N/A
Quick verdict · Personal Care & Beauty · color = vs category peers
Green = favorable by >10% vs Personal Care & Beauty median · No shading = within ±10% · Red = unfavorable by >10% · Source: FDD filings + SBA 7(a)
Data from public FDD filings and SBA records. Not financial advice. Methodology
Bottom line
- COSTTotal investment $372K – $523K including a $50K franchise fee, 7.0% ongoing royalty.
- RETURNSItem 19 reports outlet revenue, but not in a form that yields a per-outlet average we can compare across brands.
- RISKVerdict C (Average), verdict score 38/100 (higher is better).
- GROWTHFlat: no net change in franchised outlets in the latest year (0 opened, 0 closed) (Item 20).
- DATAItem 19 reports outlet revenue, but not in a form that yields a per-outlet average we can compare across brands. Ask franchisees directly for full unit-level revenue.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Corporate structure & franchisor financials
- Legal entity
- DKL Franchising, LLC
- Parent company
- AZ Strands, LLC
- Predecessor
- AZ Strands (first salon opened 2011)
- Prior franchisor entity
- CEO title
- Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
- Scott Cotten
- Incorporated in
- AZ
- HQ
- 6590 N. Scottsdale Rd., Unit 130, Paradise Valley, Arizona 85253
- Auditor
- Metwally CPA PLLC
- Audited financials
Overview
About
- CEO
- Scott Cotten
- Headquarters
- AZ
- Founded
- 2024
- FDD year
- 2025
- States available
- 1
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost runs 11% above the typical personal care & beauty franchise.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 5–7
FDD Item 7 · 2025 filing
Initial investment breakdown
| Cost component | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Initial franchise fee | $50K | $50K |
| Working capital (3–6 mo) | $50K | $70K |
| Equipment, build-out, other | $273K | $404K |
| Total initial investment | $372K | $523K |
Source: DAKOTA LONDON 2025 FDD, Items 5 and 7[2]. “Equipment, build-out, other” is computed as total minus disclosed line items above.
Item 7 · what it costs to open + operate
The Vitals
- Total investment
- $372K – $523K
- Middle of category vs category
- Liquid capital req'd
- $50K – $70K
- Middle of category vs category
- Franchise fee
- $50K – $50K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Royalty
- 7.0%
- typical 6–8%
- Ad fund
- 0.0%
- typical 3–5%
- Total fee load
- 9.0%
- vs 9–13% typical
Ongoing fees · Item 6
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 7.0% of gross sales |
| Marketing / ad fund | 0.0% |
| Technology fee | $488 |
| Transfer fee | $3K |
| Renewal fee | $10K |
| Inventory (initial) | $120K – $130K |
| Total fee load | 9.0% of rev |
What do units actually make?
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 19
ROI & LBO modelsSingle-unit · 25-unit portfolio · editable
No Item 19 revenue figure for DAKOTA LONDON is on file. The return models need a revenue figure to start from, and the operating costs that turn gross sales into a profit are in no FDD. Enter your own and the calculator runs on your assumptions — nothing here is modelled until you do.
Returns model · single-unit ROIC
What would one DAKOTA LONDON unit return on the cash you put in?
Illustrative category typicals — not sourced to any filing, survey or sample. Replace them with figures from franchisee validation calls before you rely on the output.
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
Your modelled return on total invested capital, before any debt financing.
—
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for annual revenue, COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
These models are for research and scenario planning only. Not investment advice. Actual results depend on your specific location, management, and market conditions. Consult a franchise attorney and accountant before signing any franchise agreement.
Item 19 · Source: 2025 FDD
Financial Performance
Company-owned outlets only - not franchisee performance
- Item 19 type
- company owned only
- Sample size
- 3
- vs category median 38 · small
- Range (low → high)
- $873K→$1.4MCited, not corroborated — printed on page 40 of the 2025 FDD. Nothing else in our record independently restates or re-derives it.
- Cohort dispersion (min → max)
- Reporting year
- 2024
- Fiscal year the figures cover
- Source filing
- FDD 2025
- Disclosed in the 2025 filing, covering 2024
- Transparency
- 6 / 10
- vs category median 4 / 10 · above
Compared against 177 Personal Care & Beauty brands
Operator outlook
What the numbers say
Data-driven interpretation of this brand's financial disclosures, fee structure, and system trajectory.
Fee burden
Total ongoing fee load of 9.0% (near the Personal Care & Beauty median).
Disclosure
Item 19 reports outlet revenue, but not in a form that yields a per-outlet average we can compare across brands.
Source: FDD Item 19 financial performance representations and publicly filed FDD data. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Verify all figures with the franchisor and current franchisees before making any investment decision.
vs Personal Care & Beauty medians
How Dakota London Compares
Category median of published Personal Care & Beauty brands that report the figure; the middle half spans the 25th to 75th percentile and n counts the brands behind it. Medians are used because a few very large systems pull an average far from the typical brand. Revenue is disclosed gross sales, not profit.
Is the system healthy?
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 20
Unit growth
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
- Total units
- 3
- Opened
- 0
- Last reporting year
- Closed
- 0
- Turnover rate
- N/A
- Company-owned
- 3
- Corporate units in the system
- % franchised
- 0%
- vs corporate-owned
Last fiscal year · Item 20 exits and transfers
- Signed, not yet open
- 0
- 0.00 per open outlet · Item 20 Table 5
- Projected new
- 0
- Franchisor's next-year forecast
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 12 · 1 state reported
The Territory Map
FDD Item 12 reports the state count, but the specific list isn't in our current data. The map will appear once we re-extract from the FDD or enough franchisee contacts are available.
1
states with franchisees (per FDD Item 12)
SBA loan performance
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) and 504 loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
No SBA loan data available for this brand.
What could kill this investment?
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA · FDD Items 3, 21
Risk analysis
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 4, 8, 16, 21
Risk & Legal
Bankruptcy (Item 4)
None disclosed
Audited financials (Item 21)
Yes · Metwally CPA PLLC
Franchisor revenue (Item 21)
Franchisor entity revenue (not unit-level)
Item 21 audited financial statements of DKL Franchising, LLC (FYE Dec 31, 2024) are in Exhibit H, which the OCR text renders as blank image-only pages (lines 8413-8508). No franchisor balance-sheet, income, or revenue figures, nor the CPA firm name, are recoverable from the text. Franchisor was formed Nov 26, 2024 and has not been in existence 3 years.
Supplier relationship · Items 8 & 16
- Franchisor sells you products: Yes
- Kickbacks from required suppliers: No
- Must buy proprietary products: Yes
- Restricted to system-approved products: Yes
Score breakdown · what drove the 38 / 100 verdict
- 01MINOROnly 3 units in system with unknown growth trajectory suggests stagnation or failure to scale
- 02MINORHigh initial investment ($372k-$523k) relative to only 3 franchise locations indicates unproven model
- 03MINOR7% royalty on $1.1M avg revenue = $77.5k annually, representing 30% of claimed net income — sustainability unclear
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
What are you signing up for?
Ongoing fees run about 9.0% of sales (royalty + ad fund), before rent and labor.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 11, 12, 17
FDD Items 12, 15, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
| Initial term | 10 years |
|---|---|
| Renewal term | 5 years |
| Allowed renewalsℹ | 4 |
| Territory type | Exclusive territory |
| Protected territory | Yes |
| Exclusive territoryℹ | Yes |
| Territory population | 100,000 |
| Online sales rightsℹ | Restricted |
| Franchisor can compete | Yes |
| Hire a manager? | Allowed |
| Owner-operator | Optional |
| Non-compete (years)ℹ | 2 years |
| Non-compete (miles)ℹ | 15 mi |
| Right of first refusalℹ | Yes |
| Transfer requires consent | Yes |
| Termination notice | 30 days |
| Mandatory arbitration | No |
| Arbitration location | Maricopa County, Arizona |
| Jury trial waiver | Yes |
| Governing law | AZ |
| Litigation count | 0 |
Items 10, 11
Training & Operations
- Classroom training
- 43 hrs
- On-the-job training
- 37 hrs
- Training location
- Phoenix, AZ (corporate HQ and company-owned salon) for Phase 2; virtual for Phase 1; franchisee's Salon for Onsite Training
- Ongoing training
- Required
- Time to open
- 9 mo
- From signing to launch
- Site selection
- Franchisee with franchisor approval
- Franchisor financing
- Not offered
- Item 10
- POS system
- Mango Mint
- Operating tech stack
Items 5 & 11
Franchisor Support
Technology: Mango Mint
Item 20 · call current owners
Franchisee Contacts
1 owners to call
Name · phone · city · state. Extracted from FDD Item 20
Frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to open a DAKOTA LONDON franchise?
The total investment to open a DAKOTA LONDON franchise ranges from $372K – $523K, with an initial franchise fee of $50K. This includes real estate, equipment, inventory, and working capital as disclosed in their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
What do DAKOTA LONDON franchise owners earn?
Item 19 of the DAKOTA LONDON FDD discloses outlet figures from $873K to $1.4M but no single average across all outlets. These are gross sales figures, not profit; the Revenue section shows what the filing reports and on what basis. Item 20 of the FDD lists current and former franchisees; asking them directly is the standard way to fill this gap.
Who owns DAKOTA LONDON?
DAKOTA LONDON is franchised by DKL Franchising, LLC. Its parent company is AZ Strands, LLC. Source: FDD Item 1, 2025 filing.
What is Item 19 in the DAKOTA LONDON FDD?
The FDD section where a franchisor may disclose financial performance of its outlets. Disclosure is optional and formats vary; figures are typically gross sales, which is revenue before expenses, not profit. FranchiseVerdict extracts these figures directly from the DAKOTA LONDON FDD and qualifies whose outlets they describe.
What is DAKOTA LONDON's franchise failure rate?
SBA 7(a) loan charge-off data is not available for DAKOTA LONDON (fewer than 10 loans on file). Charge-off rates are one way to gauge franchise risk, but not all franchise loans go through the SBA program. We recommend reviewing turnover and closure data in the FDD and speaking with current franchisees.
How many DAKOTA LONDON franchise locations are there?
As of their most recent FDD filing, DAKOTA LONDON has 3 total units in the United States.
Is DAKOTA LONDON a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict rates DAKOTA LONDON as a C-grade franchise with a verdict score of 38 out of 100 (higher is better). The grade is a deterministic score built from six weighted dimensions — financial health, unit economics, unit growth, scale, legal, and transparency — then calibrated against SBA loan charge-off rates and FDD age. Transparency is one of the six, so a filing that discloses less scores lower on that dimension than one that discloses more. Our rating is based solely on publicly available FDD and government data; we recommend speaking with current franchisees before making any investment decision. This is not investment advice.
Data sourced from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) FOIA records. Not financial advice.
For franchisors
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Data extracted from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) loan disclosures (FOIA). This information is provided for research purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Verify all figures with the franchisor's current Franchise Disclosure Document before making any investment decision.