Sunvitale:
Providing Equipment Solutions For Salons
by Judie Bizzozero
At the helm of the Los Angeles-based company is Gregory Rand, chief operating officer, and Lothar Waldhauer, president. Together, they bring more than 37 years of experience to this industry and are building and marketing high-quality, efficient tanning units to salons nationwide.
The key to their success is simple: Waldhauer's background as an engineering pioneer on the equipment side, and Rand's smart marketing savvy from the salon retail side.
Rand became involved in the tanning industry in the mid-'80s with the opening of the Uvasun Tanning Center, one of the first high-pressure salons in the United States. The salon has grown to become one of the most successful salons catering to an exclusive clientele that includes many high-profile celebrities of screen and stage.
His extensive experience in the retail side of tanning has given him unique insight into customers' needs and desires in tanning equipment. "The answer lies in providing equipment that is both effective and comfortable, " he says.
Waldhauer, an engineer, made his mark by working with Dr. Max Mutzhas, a photobiologist, to develop the first high-pressure tanning system under the Uvasun label. He also engineered the first high-pressure systems that were installed in the United States for the Uvasun Tanning Center.
Although Sunvitale is in its second year in the U.S. market, the company has a 15-year history of manufacturing beds for the European market from its home based in Munich, Germany. In 1998, Rand and Waldhauer began manufacturing Sunvitale beds for distribution in the United States, and they have been on a steady track since.
In addition to providing the most current UV technology available, the company is committed to providing the highest degree of customer care and is always willing to listen to the customer's point of view.
Give Them What They Want
"We offer three bed lines and one facial unit, and each has several lamp configurations that change the results and exposure times dramatically," says Rand. "Right now, we have a total of 12 different configurations available to the U.S. market, and more are on the drawing board."
The models include the Revolution 400 Series, Revolution 500 Series, Revolution 600 Series and the Power Top 7000. The company's entire thought process is on efficiency--and that's the European way of operation.
Rather than do everything in-house, Sunvitale outsources the best suppliers and then assembles the beds at its facility in Munich. For example, all the chassis are constructed from aluminum and steel because they will endure a lifetime of commercial use. The chassis are made by one of Germany's leading metal fabricators in a multimillion-dollar facility with the highest-level of tooling technology.
"If you can get the best teams to produce your components and do the final assembly in-house, you really can market a much better product," he adds. "That is one of the reasons that we don't believe in plastic--it has not been proven to withstand the rigors of commercial use as metal has. We believe in providing our customers with a high-quality product. This is evidenced by the fact that some of our beds still on the market in perfect order after 15 years of use."
Overcoming heat is another engineering challenge. Today's lamp systems produce an enormous amount of heat, which, if not regulated or dispersed properly, can adversely affect the performance of the bed. Sunvitale units are equipped with a Collective Heat Exhaust system that removes the heat from the unit, room and salon and disperses it elsewhere. This allows for the air in the room to stay cool and not funnel back into the machine to heat up the lamps and components. The result is an efficient and comfortable bed for the tanner.
"Many other beds have inefficient designs with fans that blow hot air back into the room and thus the unit. When the air is not cool to begin with, the lamp system suffers and the unit becomes less effective," says Rand.
Sunvitale beds also are equipped with a new HPT mirror glass in the facial area, allowing for about 40 percent more UV transmittance than blue cobalt glass. According to Rand, the new glass allows for use of a smaller lamp and smaller ballast which means less energy consumption, cheaper lamp changes and more UV output that the standard facial cassette equipped with cobalt glass.
Every bed comes standard with non-yellowing acrylics from Germany (which saves on yearly replacement), built-in air-conditioning and a dual-acrylic design. The new R400 Series even includes a built-in AM/FM/CD stereo system.
"The dual-acrylic is unique in the fact that there is a top acrylic where the tanner lays and a second acrylic layer about two inches below it. We then shoot air-conditioned air through the acrylic chamber and it keeps the top layer cool and comfortable," he says.
Air-conditioning is another essential component--one that not only keeps the tanner cool, but also keeps operation costs down for the salon owner.
"If a salon is having a slow day, customers can be put in a Sunvitale bed and the built-in AC will cool the room down and save on electrical costs," he says. "This is a great advantage for salons that expand or build out because they can get away with a smaller AC requirement."
The company also offers an aromatherapy feature with its beds. "It's a water-based product that not only provides a cooling effect to the skin but the water also helps to amplify the light," he says. "It's a wonderful concept because moist skin tans best."
Additionally, the company offers more than 170 different powder-coated colors to complement any salon's dcor.
Sunvitale's R500 and R600 series are the cream of the crop, as well as the company's workhorses. The units are considered true superbeds and carry all the standard upgraded features and offer four lamp configurations each. The Power Top facial station has three facial towers of 2,000-watts each, two 400-watt hand tanners and adjustable sport seat, upper body cooling fan. This unit is ideal for tanners who want a very intense amount of UVA on top of their previous tanning session or a quick session.
Sunvitale's newest unit is the R400 Series--a direct result of its customers asking for a smaller, yet powerful tanning unit.
"We call it our mini superbed," says Rand. "It really came about by having discussions with James Oliver and John Holland of Beach Bum Tanning in New York. They own eight salons and wanted to upgrade their smaller beds and increase their performance, but without a huge jump in price. They gave us some ideas, and we ran with those. Lori Vogel of Simply Sun in New Jersey had an idea to incorporate a pedestal to the design to make it appear like a superbed, so we used that as well."
The result was the evolution of the R400 Series, complete with all the bells and whistles of the R500 and R600 series, but designed to fit in a 6-foot by 7.5-foot room. The unit has a session time of 10-minutes and enables salon owners to upgrade from older 20- and 30-minute beds while doubling and tripling their profits and traffic.
"It's very smart marketing because salons don't have to remodel to upgrade," he says.
The R400 Series also utilizes longer lamps-79 inches--which eliminates staggering lamps and provides for more complete UV coverage head to toe. The bench uses 180-watt lamps while the canopy uses 180-watt lamps along the shoulders and 160-watt lamps in the chest area to allow for two high-pressure facials with the HPT glass.
Incidentally, all of Sunvitale's units are backed by a 3-year warranty that covers everything except lamps, starters, pistons and scratched acrylics, which have a lifetime warranty against discoloration.
What's Next
Building on the success of the company's medium-pressure lineup, Sunvitale is creating its first completely high-pressure unit that will incorporate features not found on today's market.
"In about eight months, we will introduce a dual high-pressure unit that will allow tanning from above and below at the same time," he says. "One of the biggest benefits is the fact that the reflector is built into the lamp. When you change lamps, you simply pull the lamp and reflector unit out and pop in a new one. This will eliminate the need to clean and polish the reflector and allow for the best UV transmittance with every lamp change."
For Rand and Waldhauer, Sunvitale's success has been extremely encouraging. They are making a name for themselves on the East Coast and working their way across the country. "We debuted in 1999 at the LOOKING FIT Expo in Chicago, and people were really curious," says Rand. "The shows in Nashville and Chicago in 2000 were phenomenal."
Currently, the company is negotiating distribution deals in the United States, Canada and England, as well as designing new equipment for the market.
With the pace of its success and the knack for listening to its clients, Sunvitale is proving to be a major contender in the U.S. sunbed market.
