The Sun Lounge

The sun will always be shining in Nairn with the addition of a new business to the town.

Chloe McLean launched The Sun Lounge in the town’s old post office building in March and has been blown away with the demand.

Boasting three lie down beds and one stand up booth, 22-year-old Chloe said she couldn’t have asked for a better start to her business.

“I just love what we have created here, I love coming in and getting to know the customers and chatting with the regulars. I couldn’t be in a job where I don’t get to speak with people.

“The business is going so well, everyone was super excited when we opened and it’s been really busy, I couldn’t have asked for it to go any better.”

However, there were a few hurdles before she opened.

“We were looking for the right property, and the old post office became available. We got the keys back in December and had planned to open in February, but we ran into a few issues with building regulations that we had to overcome. There were moments when I thought it was never going to happen, but we just carried on and did what we needed to do and got through it. It meant we opened a month later than we had hoped for, but we are here and it’s going well. When we finally opened in March, I was able to relax.”

Chloe who lives in Elgin, but whose partner is from Nairn, said she decided to bring tanning to Nairn due to demand.

“I was speaking to a lot of people who were travelling to Inverness or Elgin for tanning. People were travelling 30 to 40 minutes for a few minutes of tanning, so it made sense for me to bring it to the town, and it seems to be popular.

“For a lot of our customers, the tanning is about the relaxation, they love coming in and having a few minutes of peace. For others, it’s to help with skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis or acne, for example.”

But although she has only been open for a few weeks, she already has plans to expand the business which is open seven days a week from 9am to 9pm.

“It’s a great building and there is a lot of space at the back. We might put one more bed in and we have a few ideas of other treatments that we could introduce, but I am going to keep the under wraps for now.”

She was also singing the praises of the local trades she used to get the business up and running.

“I used local trades and I cannot speak more highly of them. They were amazing and were always there when I needed them. There were so many local businesses that helped get us open, they were just brilliant.”