First, a little straight talk. Regardless of what the “Perennial Pollyannas” continue to spout, 2005 saw massive pain and anguish at all levels. Two of the largest companies sent their CEOs to the great corporate spirit world and a goodly portion of upper level management was unceremoniously told to make like a stick and beat it. The finger pointing and second-guessing has been vociferous and astoundingly loud – odorous opinions abound on who did what wrong, and what he or she should have done differently, yadda-yadda. Today the indoor tanning industry, still a 3 + Billion Dollar annual component of the world’s greatest economy, looks inward upon itself with more clarity, humility and determination than has been available to it in more than two decades. So, everyone take a deep breath.

THE GOOD NEWS
For the most part, European salons still haven’t climbed out of their five-year slump, but despite a terribly cold and snowy winter, early year-to-date comparative numbers are encouraging. Export markets such as Russia and (if you can believe it) China continue to keep British, Dutch and Italian factories afloat, and sunless systems have begun to catch on in Spain and France. Closer to home, better-than-expected revenue results in December and January are leaving many with hopes of a banner season, perhaps due in part to unusually mild weather through the beginning of February, which kept home heating costs down and roads drivable. Apart from a stubborn, overly bloated Euro, and gasoline prices remaining higher than they rightly should be, conditions look good for a recovery of the kind seen after the ’92-‘93 recession.

THE SO-SO NEWS
Salon owners around the world still seem frozen in the decades old mindset of marketing “unlimited tans” for less than an evening out at McDonald's, and watch each other locally like hawks to see what discounts or special programs each offers, thereby promulgating the dreaded hand-to-mouth cash flow environment that has always stifled sector development. The challenge of finding and keeping good store personnel is perpetuated by the lack of discretionary funds that could be used to entice better people, and invites local media attacks during slow news periods. An absence of enthusiasm for and participation in trade associations among salon owners places the burden of financing anti-tanning defense on the shoulders of equipment and lotion manufacturers, who in turn feel jilted in that regard by the very same customers upon whose existence they depend, engendering an unhealthy love-hate relationship.

DA BAD NEWS (AND WE’RE NOT TALKIN’ “BEARS”)
The industry as a whole still seems bent on bulling its way into a final confrontation with forces that could quite easily induce its speedy demise. A good many on this side of the fence believe that, as with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, all that need be done is erect and maintain a wall of lawyerly obstinacy between “us and them” and the problems will just disappear. Well, this isn’t Jerusalem and the Philistines aren’t just shooting homemade rockets at us: there are real nukes with our names on them, and the only reason we haven’t gone up in a regulatory mushroom cloud yet is because the other side simply hasn’t given it much effort. Détente saved our planet during the cold war, and a little diplomacy might go an extremely long way toward achieving the greatest goal that has eluded us from the very beginning: Legitimacy.