An award-winning Scottish pioneer of the UK self-tanning business is launching an assault on the beauty industry with a salon in Glasgow which, she says, will provide a one-stop shop for the image-conscious.

Sandra McClumpha, who is the UK distributor for the Fake Bake solution reputed to be the tanning product of choice among footballers' wives, will open the salon called Brown Cow on West Regent Street in May.

McClumpha is developing the venture with Susan Kelly, an Irish call centre entrepreneur, with backing from Allied Irish Bank. The pair will also open an outlet in Dublin this summer.

The two women have invested around £1.5m in buying and fitting-out the building in Glasgow, in which 10 staff will provide a range of treatments on several floors.

McClumpha says that in a departure from the familiar script, the centrepiece of the facility will be a suite in which people who want to look tanned can have Fake Bake products applied to their skin. A range of other services will be offered, including teeth whitening, hairdressing and botox injections.

McClumpha says while self-tanning is usually offered as an add-on to other services, as the name implies, Brown Cow will major on Fake Bake.

The 38-year-old decided to develop the venture after spending 20 years in the beauty business.

After leaving school aged 16, McClumpha trained as a hairdresser in her home town of Stirling. She went on to run hairdressing and beauty salons before winning the rights to distribute Fake Bake in the UK and Europe from its US owner in 2001.

Helped by growing public concern about the potential risks involved with exposing the skin to too much sun, sales of Fake Bake have soared.

Having developed a business supplying 500 salons across the UK, McClumpha has won agreements to distribute Fake Bake in a range of countries. In addition to Russia, these include places where sunshine is plentiful, such as South Africa and Australia.

McClumpha has combined running her business with being a mother to two young children. Her achievements earned her national recognition last year when she won the Athena award for outstanding entrepreneurial success in the Everywoman awards run by NatWest bank.

She said the idea for Brown Cow came after Kelly suggested opening a Fake Bake salon in Spain.

"I said why not do something in the UK that is franchisable?'"

Based on contacts from other people interested in running beauty businesses, the two women think there should be plenty of demand from potential franchisees.

"People could set up on their own, but people would want to be under a corporate banner. Working on your own can be very lonely," said McClumpha.

She said Brown Cow would provide a strong brand and designs for facilities that people could use together, with support in areas such as training and administration.

In addition to spending heavily on refurbishing the properties in which the first two salons will operate, they have invested in starting to develop a legal framework for a franchised operation and training materials.