Since he entered the tanning industry with his New York salon in 1978, Leif Vasstrom has been committed to the success of the business community. Now as the founder of Supra Brands Group, he continues his passion for excellence through tanning lamps and the TanToday forum.

Q: What are some common concerns salon owners have with tanning lamps?

A: Some salon owners don’t know which lamp should be in their tanning bed. A lot of salon owners today have bought their salon from someone else, so it has equipment in it that they may not have purchased themselves. To resolve this, we have created a resource. When you view quartz lamp specifications on www.supratechnologies.com, there is a picture of the lamp and a summary of tanning beds that lamp should go into. It takes the guesswork away from the salon owner so they can feel confident in their order.

Q: How do the international markets compare to the trends we see in the U.S.?

A: Supra distributes to Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, Russia, North and South America, New Zealand, Japan and China. And there are some similar controversies across the world. In Russia, it’s growing quite rapidly since they have embraced a free market — they love anything Western. The U.K. is similar to the U.S. and Canada as far as the positive and negative publicity. In Scandinavia, people don’t really tan in the summer; they tan more in the winter. But because of their standards of beauty and hoe they value pale skin, China has very little tanning going on. However it is more popular in places like Hong Kong and Shang Hai.

Click here to read the entire article in the latest issue of Smart Tan Magazine online.