Has the dog grooming industry reached a saturation point?

The dog grooming industry is growing rapidly in the UK and groomers in some areas are reporting that they find it increasingly harder to maintain consistent and reliable diaries. 

Dog groomers that haven’t needed to advertise in years are slowly seeing empty slots that they would have filled in a heartbeat two years ago, but are now sometimes remaining unfilled. 

Is this feeling familiar? 

I recently ran a poll on my Instagram stories asking groomers what their biggest concerns were right now? 

It wasn’t pricing (as Facebook discussions might suggest), it wasn’t disrespect from customers..

It was; “Attracting more customers”.

Statistics show the number of dog groomers in the UK is increasing year on year, especially since the pandemic, and believe it or not, even more so in the past six months since the latest economic downturn due to the issues in the middle east. 

Why? 

Because on the outside we all look like we’re making a fortune! 

Any potential dog groomer could look at one of our facebook groups and see us all comparing prices (truthfully or not - I wish we had a BS filter on social media to see what some groomers are really charging don’t you?), do some quick napkin math and decide that dog grooming is a pot of gold waiting to be plundered. 

On the surface level, our industry often displays “the dream!”

Add the factor that these people probably want to genuinely work with dogs, (something we can all relate to), and we can’t really blame people for wanting to join our industry can we? 

But is the number of dogs also increasing? 

YES! It is! 

And we can’t deny that the doodle boom of the past 15 years hasn’t contributed to growing our industry rapidly. It has.

However, recent stats suggest that although dog ownership continues to rise, it's not rising at the same rate it was 5 years ago. The curve has plateaued off slightly. Sorry. 

So what does this mean for us? 

In some areas, (not all, I don’t want to generalise here), competition amongst groomers for local dogs is becoming tougher. 

Add in the factor that some owners are suffering from the cost of living crisis and stretching appointments, and we have the perfect recipe for localised saturation in some parts of the UK. 

It boils down to the very simple business principle of “Supply and Demand” 

There’s tons of supply right now, but demand isn’t growing as quickly.

And this is where we start seeing problems: real ones! 

Bear with me now, as I’m going to go a bit “business coach” on you. Are you up for it?

"In a saturated market, the standard principle of supply and demand undergoes a dramatic shift because the balance of power tilts entirely toward the buyer".

Prof Johnathon Wilson. Branding Expert & Public Speaker

In other words, if and when a market is saturated, we’re all competing for attention in a place where the owners hold all the cards! They have so many choices that they can afford to be picky, compare on price or groomer hop. 

• We start seeing groomers racing to the bottom with regards to price. Because let's be honest, anyone can fill their diary with low prices and poor boundaries. And a diary full of cheap customers looks better on the outside (at least in the short term) than a diary with no customers, right?

 (Unfortunately groomers that have other forms of financial support (partners or parents for example) can sustain this for a long time as financial viability in the business is an afterthought - sorry, judgemental but true)

• We see other groomers too scared to increase prices inline with their business outgoings as they know customer loyalty or chance of replacement isn’t as assured as it once was. So they freeze prices and hope to survive. 

• We see groomers letting customers walk all over them, contact them at all hours, or   not enforce policy infringements. Too scared to place boundaries or miss a call in case the customer goes elsewhere.

Anyone seeing the signposts to burnout here? 

Until the inevitable happens:

Businesses close. Decent groomers decide to leave the industry as they can no longer compete. They no longer want to compete!

And this isn’t just my opinion - it's an economic fact.

Any saturated market eventually goes through something called “Forced Market Equilibrium: The thin or non-existent profit margins force some businesses to concede that things aren’t working out and they step away - until market saturation is no longer a problem.

Balance is restored.

Those that survive are left to grow and strengthen, hopefully leaving behind their price competition era, and the industry experiences a boom again.

Until, 10-15 years down the line, we repeat the process - It’s a cycle. And only the strongest survive!

We’ve been on the up & up for the past 15 years since the introduction of doodles, we even got an extension with the pandemic and its consequential dog ownership boom (& customers realising that grooming is hard), but are we now finally going through our inevitable period of saturation?

Are we now in survival mode until the “Forced Market Equilibrium” is over?

Do we have to wait it out and see who closes next?

I know this might not have been the easiest read. And I don’t want you to leave thinking it's all doom and gloom. It's not!

But I'd rather have an honest conversation with you about what’s happening in the industry right now, than ignore it and pretend some of the groomers I’m speaking to aren’t worried.

I wrote above, “Only the strongest survive” - and that's what I’ll be focusing on next week.
There are real, practical things you can do, and just like the industry has changed, what works has changed too — and that's exactly where we're going next week.

Stay with me.

Karen. 

P.S. I will be hosting a webinar; "Attracting & Keeping Clients in 2026" on 30th June 2026 at 6pm for members of The Grooming Goddess Academy membership ONLY. 

Not a member? Fix that here!