The brains
behind the brand
The journey to creating a successful brand takes hard work, motivation and a lot of passion. The driving force behind Sienna X is Nicola Matthews, an inspirational entrepreneur who saw an opportunity and went on to create the number one supplier of sunless tanning products to salons and mobile therapists in the UK.
Where it all began…
Nicola first started a career in beauty when she set up a home spray tanning business in 2004. It was then that Nicola saw a gap in the spray tanning market and had her first career defining moment. With the risk of overspray going onto floors and furniture and no equipment on the market to stop this, Nicola had to get creative and utilised an old medical screen! While it was a short term solution, she knew that there had to be a more efficient option that would be lightweight and easily transferable. Watching her children play in the garden with a pop up tent Nicola had her light bulb moment and realised that the same design principle could be applied to a spray tan cubicle. Seizing the opportunity, she found a company in Hong Kong to manufacture a prototype and borrowed money from friends, family and the bank to place her first order. The Spray Tan Cubicle Company was launched in 2004. Within three months all investors were paid back, with interest. A success in itself for a start-up company and Nicola managed to do all of this while she was six months pregnant!
The customer is always right
From her experience as a graduate of British Airways and Yell.com’s internal management and customer development programme Nicola understood that exceptional customer service is key to a successful business. This was reflected in the way she managed her company and clients were so impressed with Nicola’s professionalism they soon wanted to know what else she could offer them.
The arrival of Sienna X
With considerable knowledge of the industry, Nicola decided to create a full offering that would complement the Spray Tan Cubicle Company and went on to develop a fully supported sunless tanning brand including education, marketing and business support to salons and mobile therapists. In 2008 the Sienna X brand was born, and has since gone on to become one of the most loved tanning ranges by professionals and celebrities alike, as official sponsor of the Brit Awards and Strictly Come Dancing. The success of Sienna X is apparent and the company has doubled in size during the last two years to become one of the main employers in Worcester. Despite this considerable growth Nicola has always stayed true to her original business philosophy which has seen Sienna X win countless awards for their customer service. This is something Nicola is immensely proud of and is close to the hearts of the entire Sienna X team, who all contribute to the success of Sienna X and make it the brand it is today.
