A Nottinghamshire salon has be named the tanning salon of the year after going from 'strength to strength' since the pandemic. In 2020, Tracy Williams was 'terrified' her salon, Tan-2-Mission, wasn’t going to survive due to the pandemic. But now, the single mum owns two of the best tanning salons in the country, according to industry judges.
The 54-year-old's two salons placed in the top spots at the English Hair and Beauty awards 2023 on March 26. Tan-2-Mission in Stapleford was crowned tanning salon of the year and Tan-U-Mission, Tracy’s other salon in Ilkeston, came in highly commended.
Should the TV Licence be scrapped? Have your say here
The mum from Sandiacre said it was ‘unbelievable’ as her Stapleford salon won it’s first award after three years of being open. She said: “It was really overwhelming that night. It was unbelievable. I'm still flabbergasted about it now, I can’t thank my staff enough.
“I’ve been in the tanning business for 25 years. I’vd worked in a tanning salon for eight years but that was sold and I finished working there. I then opened my own up what was in 2006 Tan-U-Mission - that’s the one in Ilkeston. We’ve had that one for 16 years.”
Tracy spoke about opening up a new salon just before the Covid pandemic hit. “Tan-2-Mission, I opened up on the 21 of February 2020, a month before lockdown so that was pretty scary for me,” she said.
“I was unsure about opening a second one, I had been wanting to open a second one and a really good friend of mine said you can do this Tracy, you know you can do this. So I did it, the opportunity came up to reopen a salon that had closed down. It was a bit of a risk
"I opened it up on the 21st of February 2020. I was terrified we weren’t going to survive because obviously we hadn't built up a client base, we had only been open for four weeks. Luckily it survived. Since we’ve opened up it’s gone from strength to strength.”
The nominations first opened for the English Hair and Beauty awards 2023 first opened mid 2022. Clients then nominate and vote and then a top ten is produced for each category. Both of Tracy’s salons were nominated.
She added: “It’s unbelievable. You have to be nominated to get into the awards by clients. When we had the news that both salons had been nominated and made the final ten I was just gobsmacked.
“It’s unreal both salons being nominated and making the final ten. English Hair and Beauty awards have been going on for a long while. Ilkeston has been nominated a few times, and we've been highly commended twice at Ilkeston. We’ve won in 2019, we won tanning salon of the year for the Midlands. It was a big thing, because it was the first time this one (Tan 2 Mission) had been nominated.”
“I’m still in shock to be honest. We were sat at the awards and they read out the list of ten nominations, ours was the first two, he (the announcer) made a joke because obviously we were screaming for Tan-U-Mission and then obviously when Tan-2- Mission came up, they said, ‘Have you got two?’ and I was like ‘yes we’ve got two’. He (the announcer) said ‘that's unbelievable’.
“When they did second place and it was Ilkeston we went mad. They made a joke that they can’t of won the first surely and when they read out the winner and it was us, I nearly wet pants to be honest,” she joked.
“We were jumping about and screaming. It was a big moment.”
The 54-year-old then spoke about her staff members which help make the salon the best that it is.
She said: “I’ve got an amazing team of girls, their customer service skills are great. They’re very good at connecting with the customers. As I say you just walk in and they know everybody's name more or less by first name.
"They’re very friendly and efficient in the job and know what they’re doing. They give out great advice for the customers, I could trust these salons in the girls hands. They’re a really good bunch of girls.
She added that her clients are like ‘friends’. She said: “They’re more like friends. I’ve got an amazing manageress at Ilkeston. You can come in and have a chat, you don’t have to come in and have a sun bed. That’s the sort of relationship we’ve got with our clients.
“We pride ourselves in cleanliness, making sure we’ve got the best tubes and products. We don’t cut any corners even though times are hard at the minute and prices of everything have gone up, the electric prices have gone up. The things that we give out like your deodorants and face wipes and all that kind of stuff it’s all gone up. We’ve just got a really good relationship with everybody.
“The customers I can’t thank enough for nominating us. They’re all brilliant. We will try to keep providing the best service and tanning experiences that we can.”
READ NEXT:
