Versa Spa questions

[iwilson]

First post newbie from New Zealand. I own a Fitness Club and have recently installed an Ergoline Vertical to replace an ancient Dr. Mueller (sunbed revenue has tripled in the couple of months since it's been installed). Although not a core part of the business the increase in revenue has got me interested enough to look at expanding this area of our business. With one of the highest melonoma rates in the world (the sun is really really intense here), Solarium's although popular get a pretty bad rap. The industry is essentially unregulated, although a voluntary standard exists, if you were to follow it to the letter I doubt you'd be in business long - i.e. you need to display prominent signs warning of the dangers of skin cancer, compulsory use of googles, banning certain skin types, long questionnaires for every new customer, you get the picture. Which is not to say I don't agree with some of it, I just think it's a bit over the top.

Background info over, on the back of a few requests I'm looking at sunless options. I'm not prepared to employ dedicated staff - it's not my core business so makes no sense to try and compete with Beauty Salons, so that rules out manual spray tans. It has to be an automatic spray booth. In the course of my googling I've discovered this site, pretty feisty lot judging by my browsing

I know that Mystic and Magic Tan have now merged, but Mystic's website now displays bugger all, although the indication is Magic and Mystic will continue offering their own products. In New Zealand there seems to be plenty of Salons with Mystic Tan booths and very few with Versa Spa. Reading these forums Versa Spa seems to be held in high regard, but there are a few threads with very positive reviews regarding the Mystic tan units.

The kicker in all this is that the sole New Zealand agent is selling the Versa Spa with a guaranteed protected area. This is obviously quite attractive, but only if the Versa Spa is so good that potential clientele will prefer it over other offerings. So is it that much better than the opposition?

He asks around 28k USD for a unit, which given shipping, taxes and protected area, doesn't seem that outrageous. I'm not expecting to set the world on fire in the sales department, but given it will only cost me the equivalent of a couple of commercial treadmills and will lockup the area I'm in preventing any competition I'm pretty keen at this stage. Right now I'm really keen to get signed up without worrying about the numbers in order to lock the area up before someone else does. The going rate for Salons in NZ with one is around $45 USD per session, so at one a day it will be making money in less than two years (accounting for running costs and no financing). I would expect to be doing better this if it does what it say's on the tin.

I have a meeting with the distributor tomorrow and would like to hear from those with a Versa Spa. Have you seen a jump in business since installation? Are there any things that annoy you about the unit? What's the feedback from users? Is a new and improved model around the corner? Have clients switched from Sunbeds to the Versa Spa or are they separate market areas? Is there an equivalent Mystic Tan model and how does in rate in comparison?

Sorry for the novel!

[bobalou]

How can they protect your area if a used unit is purchased, say like the ones on this site?

[iwilson]

I had the same thoughts, I'm pretty sure he is also the sole agent for the solutions and repair/maintenance etc. Spoke to him briefly and he mentioned buying second hand units himself and reselling them.

[solman]

The Versa Spa is a great booth. If you're going to invest in a new spray booth you might as well get the best. If you have some exclusivity that's great too, but don't count on it lasting forever.

[iwilson]

Had a two hour meeting with the agents today. I'm pretty much sold. I'm in a town of around 20,000 just south of Auckland, NZ's biggest city (approx. 1 million). Believe it or not I will be the very first in the Auckland area to have a Versa Spa. There are only 10 in the whole country (pop. 4 million). There are a reasonable number of older Magic Tan booths, the reason for the small number of Versa Spa's is the old Magic Tan booths went for approx. $60k USD about double what the Versa Spa is currently going for. That means a lot of Salons have some major money tied up in their Magic Tan booths and are not in a position to upgrade to a Versa Spa. Having done quite a bit digging on this site last night, one area of concern with the Versa Spa seemed to be the lack of heat in the drying stage. I was told today that new units are now being equipped with infrared heaters to address this issue. Older units will be upgradeable.

As far as exclusively goes I will have a guarantee that no units will be sold in my town as long as I do certain minimum numbers on solution. Since the agent is the sole distributor the only way around this would be to import one from overseas, but the agent could choose not to supply solution or maintain/repair such a unit. So I think I'll be ok in that regard. He was quite impressed with the amount of foot traffic aka members coming and going and is convinced it will work well. Talking to members over the past few days many have indicated they would use the Versa Spa. Long term I'm in the middle of redeveloping the building and eventually would like to have a Salon operating under the wing of the Fitness Club, probably as a separate business. Fitness Clubs tend to attract the right kind of customer for a Salon, i.e. have disposable income, tend to be female and place importance on personal appearance.

I get the feeling that Fitness Clubs are not held in high regard here. I can see why. Many Clubs whack in a Sunbed sometimes as a loss leader to attract members or at a lower margin than a dedicated Salon can afford to operate the bed at, thereby stealing customers from Salons. This may in part be true for a small part of the market, but I doubt it holds true for the majority who are looking an experience that only a Salon can offer. On the flip side I think Fitness Clubs represent a great opportunity for Salon operators. Clubs don't tend to do a good job of running sunbed's etc because it's not part of their core business. There is a excellent business case to be made by renting space in a Club and operating a Salon. The Club wins by getting a rental income and having a first rate (hopefully) Salon, thereby attracting potential members. The Salon wins by being in a prime location with a high traffic count of the right potential clientele along with being able to work with the Club with combined deals and cheap or free advertising as part of the Clubs marketing efforts. At the end of the day Fitness Clubs exist so rather than bemoaning them, it's better I think to find ways of profiting from them.

Sorry for the thread drift, just think it's an interesting angle for Salon owners - I know it happens to some degree in Fitness Clubs already, so this is probably ground that has already been gone over.

[iwilson]

Right job done. Feburary next year I'll be the proud owner of my very own VersaSpa. Being on the bottom of the earth our JASON is actually NDJFM, doesn't roll off the tongue quite the same! Getting it in Feburary will give the staff a chance to get up to speed before things start to heat up so to speak.

The agent has been great to work with and I've got pretty much all the guarantees I was looking for. A protected area and an assurance that should a unit come into my area he will not sell solution or provide repairs/maintenance for it. As the sole agent for the country this pretty much locks out anyone else.

I really see the VersaSpa being the way of the future. Regardless of your opinions regarding Sunbeds the media has made it's mind up. In New Zealand's case the current generation of kids growing up have been thoroughly indoctrinated with the dangers of the sun and rightly or wrongly sunbeds have been lumped in as an evil to avoid.