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Great Clips franchise — is it worth it?

Medium risk Growing network Item 19 disclosed

What Great Clips's most recent Franchise Disclosure Document says about the money, the litigation, and the franchisee churn — before you wire a five- or six-figure franchise fee.

Everything below is free, read straight off Great Clips's registered filing, with where the numbers land against category peers. Weighing Great Clips against other options? Get a free shortlist of franchises that fit your budget.

Figures above are as disclosed in Great Clips's most recent FDD (registered 2025). Source: Minnesota Dept. of Commerce — CARDS franchise registrations · filing 35205-202601-04 — check it yourself. See every other Minnesota-registered franchise.

How much does a Great Clips franchise make?

Great Clips is one of the franchisors that answers this on the record: its most recent FDD makes an Item 19 financial performance representation — actual unit earnings figures, disclosed by the franchisor itself. The headline figure did not machine-read cleanly from this filing, so we don't print one; Item 19 of the source FDD has the tables. See every other brand that discloses earnings in the Other franchises with disclosed Item 19 earnings ranking.

Great Clips franchise profit vs. revenue

Revenue is not profit. An Item 19 almost always reports sales — what a location takes in — not what an owner keeps. Out of that number come the royalty, the ad fund, rent, payroll, supplies and debt service. No FDD tells you a Great Clips franchise's profit, because profit depends on your site, your rent and how you run it — so treat any "Great Clips franchise profit" figure quoted elsewhere as someone's estimate, not a disclosure.

Great Clips lawsuits & legal history (FDD Item 3)

We do not publish a litigation answer for Great Clips. Item 3 could not be read reliably from this particular filing, and a claim that a company has no legal history is not one to make on a failed parse — so we say we do not know instead. Item 3 of the FDD itself is the place to check; the methodology page explains what we do and do not machine-read.

Great Clips closures & failure rate

Before you sign, Great Clips will hand you a list of current owners to call as references — and they choose who's on that list. It won't include the owners who quit, got bought out, or were forced out last year. The FDD does report that number, even though the reference list leaves those people off. Below is what Great Clips's most recent filing shows, and whether it's normal for a franchise of this kind.

The closest thing an FDD has to a failure rate is Item 20 — outlet openings, closures, terminations and non-renewals, reported by the franchisor. Great Clips's latest tables show a growing franchised network. Its franchised-outlet closure rate — closures, terminations and non-renewals against outlets — is 2.3%. Net franchised outlets moved +12 to 4,439 in the latest reported year.

Who owns Great Clips?

Great Clips's franchise is offered by GREAT CLIPS INC — the franchisor named on the cover of its most recently filed Franchise Disclosure Document (2025), and the entity a franchisee actually signs with. That name comes straight off the filing at MN CARDS; it identifies the franchisor, not necessarily the ultimate parent company behind it.

Compare Great Clips head-to-head

Franchises at a similar investment level at a similar investment level

Anyone weighing Great Clips is really weighing it against the other brands their money could go into. These are the closest by total initial investment (FDD Item 7), each with its own FDD-based page.

Great Clips franchise — frequently asked