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The OperatorBy The PetRetailNews Desk3 min readOctober 1, 2026
Woofie's Opens North Austin Franchise With Mobile Grooming And Pet Sitting Services
The franchise is owned by newlyweds Cody and Mia Erickson and staffed by a general manager with 20 years in the pet industry and Westminster Kennel Club experience.
Woofie's Mobile Pet Grooming is opening a franchise location in North Austin and Cedar Park, launching October 17 at the Barktoberfest Festival in Cedar Park. The franchise will offer mobile grooming, dog walking, and pet sitting services.
The location is owned by Cody and Mia Erickson, newlyweds who come from business marketing and healthcare backgrounds. They hired Sunni Scalici as general manager and lead groomer. Scalici has over 20 years in the pet industry as a vet technician, groomer, and handler, with appearances and awards at Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. The team emphasizes fear-free handling techniques and connects to Pet Vet Connection for veterinary telehealth. Woofie's mobile app lets pet owners schedule services, track walks via GPS, and receive real-time updates.
The mobile model and what it competes with
Mobile grooming franchises like Woofie's pull revenue from a service many independent pet stores offer as a traffic driver and margin contributor. A store that runs an in-house grooming operation is competing with a van that parks in the customer's driveway and eliminates the drop-off trip. The operational difference matters. A mobile unit serves one dog at a time in a contained environment, while a salon grooms multiple dogs across the day and can upsell retail on the way out.
Sunni Scalici told the source that the mobile setup "allows for a relaxed, one-on-one environment that helps to minimize noise and distractions of a traditional salon," using "gentle, low-stress and soothing handling techniques." That positioning, fear-free and one-on-one with show-quality grooming brought to the driveway, is the pitch against the salon model, and it lands with a segment of owners willing to pay for it.
The franchise expansion pattern and what it signals
Woofie's has been adding Texas locations, though the source does not give a total franchise count or growth rate. Single-location franchise openings like this one are a trailing indicator of franchisor confidence. The brand is selling territories and operators are buying in, but the openings do not tell you market saturation, unit economics, or whether the model is working at scale. The source does not provide revenue figures, average ticket, service volume, or competitive density in the Austin market.
The hire of a 20-year industry veteran as general manager does signal something. The franchisees are staffing for credibility and retention, not just coverage. A lead groomer with Westminster experience and a ranked show dog is a differentiator in a market where mobile grooming competes on skill as much as convenience.
If your revenue model includes grooming or you're weighing a mobile competitor in your market, subscribe to PetRetailNews.
Our read and what matters for stores with grooming
Mobile grooming franchises do not typically carry retail inventory. The van is the service, not a store, so they are not competing for shelf space or product margin. They are competing for the customer relationship and the ancillary spend that comes with it. A store that grooms a dog every six weeks has a built-in reason for that customer to walk the aisle. A mobile service that grooms the dog in the driveway does not.
For a store owner in a market where mobile grooming is expanding, you need to know whether grooming is a profit center or a traffic driver. If it is margin, the mobile competitor is a direct problem. If it is traffic, the problem is softer but still real. You are losing the regular touchpoint that turns a grooming customer into a food and treat buyer. Woofie's addition of dog walking and pet sitting services widens that competitive surface. Those are relationship services that keep the brand top of mind without requiring the customer to enter a retail location.
The source does not give pricing, service radius, or customer acquisition cost, so we cannot model the unit economics or the breakeven volume. What we can say is that a franchise opening in a competitive metro market like Austin, staffed by experienced operators and backed by telehealth and app infrastructure, reflects confidence that the mobile model has margin. If you are running grooming in a market where mobile operators are adding locations, they will take some of your volume. Whether your grooming operation can compete on skill, speed, and the retail upsell they cannot offer is what you need to answer.
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