#NewsKnowledge – Tanning Shops

On BBC Radio 4 Today programme there was a piece around tanning salons being a health risk with many not being maintained to the required standards. Last week there were various articles which focussed this problem on Blackpool – here is the link to the BBC piece. For many high street visitors tanning salons used to be very popular in the 1990s but since then they have been overtaken by charity shops, cheque cashing, coffee and betting shops!

Today LDC tracks 1,238 standalone tanning shops and no doubt more tanning beds will exist in other health and beauty locations (add another 10,000 outlets!). Normally when you look at retail sectors you will see a bias towards Greater London due to its size and population per unit but in the case of Tanning Shops the Blackpool effect is proved with the North West have the most outlets. The greatest 12 month growth, however, is in Scotland the the South West at +6% each. The Tanning Shop is the largest multiple with over 60 outlets. The growth of Tanning Shops in the last two years is a story of slowly but surely with a growth rate of 2.3% which is half the rate of Bike Shops.

To put the BBC (and others) news piece on Blackpool in context, Blackpool is no the tanning capital of GB or even the North West. In the North West, Manchester leads the way with 36 Tanning Shops which is more than double any other town and Blackpool is third with 9 having had 10 last year!

So that’s Tanning Shops put into context and from the sound of the airwaves it looks like legislation is heading towards Tanning Shops everywhere!