Lesley’s luxury salon is the best of British
Mar 17 2008 by Chris Knox, The Journal
A BEAUTY therapist is looking to expand her chain of beauty salons and hit a turnover of over £1m after picking up a coveted award.
Lesley Caster recently picked up the Best British Beauty Salon 2008 award for her City Retreat salon, based next to the 55 Degrees North bar in Newcastle city centre.
Lesley was able to fend off competition from a host of top London salons to claim the prize at the British Professional Beauty Awards in London.
She is now looking to build on her success by adding a number of new treatments to the salon including aromatherapy for pregnant women and a larger range of massage oils.
She is also looking to increase the treatments on offer at her recently opened branch at the FX Leisure health and fitness centre in Gateshead and hopes to increase City Retreat’s turnover from £264,000 to around £400,000 by the end of the year, with the intention of hitting sales of over £1m in five year’s time.
Lesley started up the business in 2004 after spending eight years as a lecturer of beauty therapy at South Tyneside College, during which she realised there was a market for a luxury salon in the North East.
She said : “I used to keep track of the market by reading industry magazines while doing my lecturing job and realised that the North East was lacking a luxury beauty salon. However, I would never have dreamt that it would be considered to be the best in the North East, never mind the country.”
