HEALTHY GLOW FOR SLG AS IT RETURNS TO SELF-TAN MITT MANUFACTURE

With Covid-19 trying its best to kibosh summer travel to warmer climes, it’s great to hear that SLG, the Cheltenhamborn global beauty products business, has restarted manufacture of the product it launched 20 years ago by company founder Graham Dunkley.

Graham’s patented self-tan mitts allow the flawless application of self-tan to skin, without any streaking or staining of hands.

So we might all be stuck in Blighty this summer, but we can still get that sunkissed glow.

Over the past two decades and under SLG’s three global patents, Graham’s phenomenally successful invention has produced more than 50 million mitts.

The Velvotan mitts are sold in Boots, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda – which sells one mitt every 30 seconds in the UK.

The company also supplies leading brands such as St Tropez, Vita Liberata and the world’s largest retail multiples.

SLG previously manufactured the mitt and other products from its facility

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in Kingsholm Road, Gloucester but subcontracted the manufacturing out in 2018 as it switched to concentrate on global brand building and marketing.

But last year, against the backdrop of the pandemic and growth in the global self-tan market, the company brought the manufacturing of its self-tan mitt back in-house. This will allow more product innovation, help boost quality and production control and enable a scale-up in America, where a healthylooking skin seems to be as important as very white teeth.

SLG has now opened its new manufacturing facility on the Lansdown Trading Estate in Cheltenham.

Lucy Beresford, SLG’s Joint Managing Director, said: “The opening of our new factory in such a short space of time is testament to the resilience and determination of our team in spite of Covid-19.

“SLG’s teams opened a new production facility and managed to maintain the complex developments of three other new brands which we are launching in the first quarter of this year in the UK and America.”

Developed by Warwickshirebased advanced engineering and research company Horiba-Mira, with funding from government, the Merlin Robot can autonomously carry out simulated chemical reconnaissance tasks over test areas covering up to 10,000 square metres.

Deployment of the Merlin Robot, which is still a single prototype, allows personnel to monitor and manage the test incident scene from a safe distance, away from potential harm.

Chemical reconnaissance on suspected or confirmed use of chemical agents is currently carried out by specialist personnel on foot and in specially modified vehicles. A dangerous and laborious task, it requires high levels of specialist training.

Using autonomous systems could significantly lower the risk on deployed teams.