Halliwell: Sisters open new tanning salon and its a success already

Jackie Mather, 37 and Faye Mather, 27, have opened a new unisex tanning salon, Sun HQ, on Adrian Road after converting a terraced property into a business.

Jackie said they decided to open a business together alongside their day-to-day jobs and didn’t expect the response they have received.

She said: “I own the property, a terraced house, and I bought it two years ago and we didn’t know what to do with it.

“I originally bought the property to move in but I then got pregnant and I realised I needed somewhere bigger and now I have two children, so I did need a bigger property.

“The property needed a lot of work done to it as it was really run down, and I wanted to do it up and there was the idea of opening a sun bed shop.

“So, we just decided to convert it and it has taken two years. We have the salon downstairs and then we will have a flat upstairs which is still being renovated at the minute.

“We have transformed the downstairs where people can access two lie-down sun beds and one stand up sun bed and I’m not sure what inspired us to open really.

Faye and Jackie Mather (Image: Jackie Mather)

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“I am a solicitor so doing this at the side and my sister is currently on maternity leave and does cleaning so we’re both working as well as doing the tanning salon.

“Neither of us have done anything like this before but we just decided to jump ship and do it together.

“We hope one day both of us will have the freedom to just have our own business and work less than we are doing now, but at the minute we are juggling but so far so good."

Jackie said the pair were scared at first but are now feeling excited after they saw an influx of people.

She said: "When we first opened, we were scared but mostly excited, we had a really good opening weekend with people coming down.

“We had about 20 people on the Saturday, Sunday was a little bit quiet because of the snow but since then we have averaged about 20 customers a day.

“We have done really well so far, and we hope that stays, it’s just been fantastic.

“Neither of us are qualified in beauty but the next best thing was sun beds because you don’t actually have to have qualifications for that and it’s the next best thing.

“I have always used sun beds and in Halliwell I think there was something missing, so we are filling a void in the market.”

Sun HQ Tanning Salon is open from Mondays to Saturdays from 9am to 7pm and on Sundays from 11am to 4pm.

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