The FINANCIAL — People all over the world wait no longer for hot summer season in order to get tanned. Thanks to a number of new centers offering solarium services, the number of their customers is increased rapidly.
Though, lately people start to pay a great attention to the quality of the solariums they get tanned in. One of the best offers in the local market in this respect is an intellectual solarium.
“We operate two solariums at the recently opened center. These solariums are the novelties in the local market. The first- intellectual solarium diagnoses the person’s skin tan quality and only than switches on special program and the other- vibration one enables you burn calories or increase muscle tissue while tanning. The more expensive and sophisticated is the solarium the safer and more secure it is, that’s why we have a bunch of clients daily,” Gia Gvaramia, the Leading Surgeon of Gia Gvaramia’s Aesthetic Center, Associated Professor, told the FINANCIAL.
Two leading sun bed importers are currently represented on the Georgian market. One is Ergoline situated on Abashidze St. and the other – Natali, is situated on Melikishvili Avenue. Ergoline was the first and only solarium studio on the Georgian market.
In Georgia most solarium studios are merged with beauty salons. Ergoline plans to expand its net in to the regional cities of Georgia, the first city will Kutaisi where a solarium studio will be launched in September 2008.
According to Natali, the popularity of solariums is growing day by day. Natali is a beauty salon which added this service 10 years ago. The salon is visited by 50-60 customers daily. The number of clients is seasonal and their number grows in early spring and continues till the end of autumn.
According to Marina Shengelia, General Director of Ergoline Georgia, the average starting amount of investment for this business is EUR 15 thousand. The price of Ergoline sun beds range from EUR 25 thousand up to EUR 40 thousand. Ergoline has its official representatives in 86 countries and possesses 65% of the world’s market. Turnover of the Ergoline Studio increased by 20% compared to the previous year 2007.
LTD Golden Fleece is an official representative of Ergoline Solariums in Georgia and in the whole of the Caucasus. The business was started in 1999.
“Initially the company possessed only two apparatus. We purchased these two apparatus on credit, but I was sure that this business would have a future in Tbilisi and in the whole of Georgia. We managed to destroy the stereotype that the solarium is a harmful place. The most important thing is to know how to use the apparatus and to have professional staff in the studio,” Shengelia declared to The FINANCIAL.
According to Tamuna Lomidze, Instructor of Natali Solarium, Natali is the only importer of solariums in Georgia. The salon has a very well developed net of distribution.
“We mostly distribute apparatus from Italy and we cooperate with the Italian manufacturer Tecnosole. The price range of these apparatus is EUR 9 thousand – EUR 10 thousand. Beauty salon Natali has been offering solarium services for 10 years already. We added this service to the beauty salon according to the demand of our customers,” Lomidze noted.
Natali receives 50-60 clients a day and has one of the highest services among Georgian salons.
“Today Ergoline is the only studio with this special service. Ergoline is only a solarium studio not a beauty salon or anything else. The brand new product is the IQ solarium, its price is EUR 40 thousand,” Shengelia said.
IQ sensor solariums (Smart Tanning) are a new trend in sun bed technology. Clients’ skin type is determined at the sun bed using an integrated IQ sensor which measures a customer’s face and body. Every step is explained by the Voice Guide (spoken user guidance). The first measurement is performed on the forehead. An acoustic signal confirms successful measurement. The second measurement is carried out on the palest part of the body: e.g. the buttocks or insides of the arms. It’s important that this part of the body is included in the tanning regime. This way, allowance is made for pigmentation progress at the next tanning session and tanning power can be increased. The Intelligent Power System or the Automatic Power System calculates the individual UV dosage in seconds.
The price of the sun beds range from EUR 25 thousand up to EUR 40 thousand. For the current moment the salon has 7 solarium apparatus.
In Shengelia’s words, orders on purchases from Georgia are very little, only nine apparatus were purchased by the Georgian side. But today leasing is helping starting businessmen to purchase apparatus step by step. As for Ergoline – Georgia cooperates with TBC Bank and helps its customers in using TBC Bank’s leasing service.
“Five million apparatus were sold in Italy. Italy has its own producers of solarium apparatus but German technique seems more reliable for them. Ergoline has special events to attract the attention of new clients, these events are mostly connected to the printed media. The solarium business is seasonal and the most active period for our business is spring,” Shengelia added.
According to Lomidze, Natali has strict control over all of its technique changes the lamps of the sun beds four times a year.
“I can declare that very few salons do that as it is connected to a waste of money. As a rule lamps are not cheap. At the current moment control on the quality of tanning beds does not exist in Georgia, the Ministry of Health does not care about this direction. Supposedly it is a new service and the time will come when this will be controlled,” Lomidze said.
As Nata Sharashidze, Founder of Ergoline, noted, a tan from a tanning bed is not as deep as a tan from the sun. This is due to the fact that tanning beds have higher overall levels of Ultra Violate (UV) than the sun on a typical day, so the exposure times are shorter than the average session spent in the sun to achieve the same effect of tan.
“This can cause someone with a dark indoor tan to go outside and get bad sunburn quickly because the deeper levels of their skin have not been previously exposed, and have no natural protection above what white skin would have. It is strongly recommended that a person does not tan indoor and outdoors on the same day, due to the likely chance that they will get overexposed,” Sharashidze said.
Solariums have UVB light and it has its benefits. UVB light leads to the production of vitamin D in the skin. Vitamin D is important for a number of human functions, including the maintenance of normal blood levels of phosphorus and calcium and the promotion of healthy bones.
Studies have shown that many people don’t get enough of the vitamin, which may even aid in diabetes, and HIV. However, because tanning beds use bulbs that emit mostly UVA light (95% UVA and 5% UVB), tanning beds do not appreciably help the body produce vitamin D.
According to the European Doctor’s Council, ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the most prominent and universal cancer-causing agent in our environment. Some scientists have suggested recently that there may be an association between UVA radiation (the type of radiation that makes up most of the radiation in tanning beds) and malignant melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer.
According to Lomidze, solariums remain popular in summer as well as people who have white skin have to adjust their skin to the sun’s rays before going to the seaside. One of the most commonly mentioned benefits of tanning in a tanning bed is time saving. Most tanning beds offer a maximum session time of 20 minutes. After a desired level of tan has been achieved, a person can maintain that level of colour with typically 1 to 2 sessions per week, which can often be accomplished in a lunch hour.
For individuals living in urban areas, or who work extended hours, a tanning bed may be the only opportunity for tanning or UV exposure of any kind.
Per minute price in the studio starts at GEL 1, 20 and goes up to GEL 4, 80.
“We pay the same kind of attention and level of service to ordinary people as well as to famous faces. Business is created by ordinary people and not only by celebrities,” said Lomidze.
Annual turnover of Ergoline Georgia has increased by 20%, which is a satisfactory index.
According to Lomidze, tanning beds are used for somewhat different reasons in the US than in Europe.“In the U.S, tanning is more seasonal, where most users begin in January and stop or slow down by June. It is most often used as a way to jumpstart the tanning process, so that once the summer begins, they can go to the beach or enjoy other outdoor activities and already have a significant base tan built up. This is also why tanning lotions and bronzers are more commonly used in the U.S,” Lomidze said.
“Europeans may enjoy tanning seasonally, but less so than Americans. This is due to many areas in Europe having significantly fewer days of sunshine than the U.S.A, so Europeans are more likely to use a tanning bed all year long, for both the cosmetic and mood altering benefits. In Georgia the summer season is actual, as people try to avoid sunburns at the sea side,” Lomidze added.
In Sharashidze’s words, a more controversial benefit of tanning indoors rather than tanning outside is the amount of control the tanner has.
According to Lomidze, current trends in the solarium industry is the home tanning bed.
“Many people prefer to own their own tanning system instead of going to a salon. The primary reasons are sanitation concerns and convenience. Natali has individual clients although I do not advise people to have their own tanning system at home as it leads them to destroying their own health,” Lomidze added.
Written by Natia Taktakishvili.
