Sunless Manufacturer Comments on 'Perils of Spray Tan' Article

I think your “The Perils of Spray Tan” blog only touches on a rapidly changing business. Tanning salons need to figure out a thoughtful and creative business response or their business could be materially damaged.

I comment as owner of Biddiscombe International, a small company that happens to be one of the industry’s largest manufacturers of sunless solutions and products. A very large part of our business is private label and we also sell airbrush and HVLP equipment and some solution into spray booth applications. Between our branded product sales, private label and equipment sales on a national basis, we see a very broad cross section of the sunless market every day.

This is what we see currently:

1. Sunless tanning is growing significantly. Much of the growth is occurring outside tanning salons.

2. The new entrants are all over the map in terms of sophistication, drive and resources. Almost all participants outside of tanning salons are using the concept of sunless being the safe way to a tanned look as part of their marketing program. This is only going to intensify.

3. Non-tanning salons and spas are adding sunless at an increasing rate.

4. Mobile spray tanning services are growing. For $500-$700 or so, mobile services can be up and running with very good quality spray equipment, so the cost of entry is very low. It is absolutely not necessary to spend more than $1,000 to be adequately equipped. Additional players are going to be coming into the market constantly.

5. Virtually in every case of someone focusing on mobile sunless services or perhaps mobile services combined with a business base, the desire of these individuals to provide a high-quality result that is consistent every time is paramount. Because this is often the primary business of the technician, they work hard at ensuring this happens.

6. The sunless-only group is diligent on trying different solutions and products to achieve the best result and to build a profitable, sustainable business. Some fail, but we also see a group building good businesses.

7. To the contrary of the comment about salons correcting bad spray tans, we also hear constantly of folks getting sprayed poorly in tanning salons and having to go to hand-held spray technicians to get fixed.

8. Tanning salon owners are recently telling us that sunless is the only part of their business that is growing and that they are considering expanding sunless.

What does this mean for salons? It is a lot like land-line telephone companies – if they don’t adapt to the challenge of cell phones, their future will be very bleak.

The competition from sunless-only participants is going to intensify.

The safe tanning rhetoric from the sunless-only group will be constantly present and will increase.

Salons can either embrace or fight sunless. If they want to build the sunless business, they need to give it creative attention and figure out ways to become dominant in their markets. In other words, beat the competition with strategy and marketing. It is not going away.

Regards to all,

John Melville

John Melville, a seasoned executive out of the food and ingredients industry, acquired Biddiscombe (www.biddiscombe.com) in 2004 and is its president. Formulating spray tan solutions starting in 1998, Biddiscombe is an experienced sunless manufacturer in the tanning industry. It has a broad range of its own sunless solutions and support products and manufactures sunless products for many domestic and foreign companies as well. Melville (jmelville@biddiscombe.com) operates from Biddiscombe’s manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg, Fla.

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