Doug and I decided to co-write an article. We wanted to take a minute to reflect on how the JCTA started, what we accomplished and how bright the future looks… pardon the pun.

It’s no secret that The Tanning Depot and Uvalux are competitors.  But we come together and put aside our competitive nature and work together for the good of the industry. Same as many of you, salon owners, it’s important to know who your competitors are, because there may be points that we have to work together to make our industry stronger and better.

That was the basis of the JCTA, the foundation of ‘Joint’ in Joint Canadian Tanning Association.

We started in 2004 as separate provincial associations.  In 2006, unified and excited by the outcome of Fabutan’s fight with the Competition Bureau, where our industry was allowed to promote that UVB from a tanning bed produces vitamin D, Uvalux hosted a meeting at their office in Woodstock that was truly inspiring. Leaders from all the associations, distributors, and customers came together. There, we made commitments to fund a Canada-wide association. Uvalux and Tanning Depot both committed to $100K for that year to kick start this drive — a commitment that both Doug and I have continued for the last 12 years. We both made this financial commitment while agreeing to having salon owners hold the majority of seats on the board, thus conceding decision making to salons.

In that time, we are proud to have been part of writing legislation in all but one province, working on a federal and provincial level to script what the future of our industry was going to look like. We’ve made tough decisions to responsibly incorporate restrictions on under-18 tanning. We’ve helped governments understand the benefits of moderate exposure to UV light, while managing the risks.  Now we’re a professional association, not a trade association, which puts us in a proactive position with government, not a reactive one.

We provided significant funding for research that has given us tools and information to help us convey our message; including a vitamin D and sunbed study in Canada – the first of it’s kind. We have connected with world associations to help share this information and make a more consistent message around the world.  Now, our resources have made a world tanning library possible. This allows us to search studies and research papers from around the world in an instant.

We have worked tirelessly to drive tanners to your salons.  We have a Facebook page with over 21,000 followers. We developed a “Please Tan Responsibly” message to help people understand that, similar to alcohol, there are risks and benefits to UV light and that moderation is key. We are extremely proud of developing this message to tanners through our websites; skintype.ca and tanresponsibly.ca. Today we send 400 to 600 Canadians a day to tanresponsibly.ca to see Member Salons listed on the Salon Finder.

And today, we are more excited than ever. With the government work mostly behind us, we can get doing what we love to do: Promote the benefits of having a tan, help people feel better and look better, drive traffic into your tanning salon and lead this industry. Our board members have decades of combined experience behind them, and for that we feel very fortunate.

And we are thankful for all the salon members over the years and the new ones that continue to join us on our journey — for believing in the JCTA and the work that we are doing.

And, we are thankful for Steve — for being that guy that we can both count on, but more importantly that our industry can count on.