According to specialist beauty machine supplier, SalonQuip, beauty therapy businesses turning over less than $2million annually have taken full advantage of the Australian Government’s economic stimulus packages, spending up on salon machines while the up to 50 per cent tax concessions were applicable until the end of 2009.

From May to December 2009, SalonQuip reported new highs in demand for sales of its house-branded digital body massagers, faradic body slimmers, 8-in-1 and 4-in1 combination units, steamers and console high frequency, and galvanic and vacuum spray patter massage machines.

Particularly noticeable was the trend in salons to upgrading sets of multiple machine units for a salon in order to meet the required invoice minimum for taxation concessions. The re-emergence of electrolysis as a permanent hair removal treatment saw a continuing sharply-upward movement in the sales graph for Sterex Epilators throughout the past year, as many therapists brushed up on their skills and returned to electrolysis.

SalonQuip director, Morea Reid, said: “Certainly throughout the tax concession period our many beauty operator clients rushed to buy the new Sterex Epilators, but in addition, we noted that extra government grants to TAFE colleges resulted in beauty training schools turning over old epilators or reviving training electives in electrolysis in response to student demand. It’s the expanding treatment trend at present.”

Reid also attributes SalonQuip’s beauty machine sales boom to the business’s policy of stocking replacement accessories such as electrodes and steamer jars for their machines, as well as pre-sale bench-testing of beauty machines to maintain quality and reliability. “Our clients recognise that we only sell machines with dedicated attachment outlet plugs, minimising OH&S risks by incorrect connections,” she said.

Pictured above is the SalonQuip team, left to right: Tahnee Woodman, Fiona Hornsby, Morea Reid, Anne Henderson and Lina Magalotti.