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The Utah College of Massage Therapy, known for its television advertisements that show its graduates working in glamorous jobs in exotic locations, is about to be sold to a Nassau, Bahamas-based company whose operations including running spas and salons on 120 cruise ships.
Steiner Leisure Limited, which generated revenue of $296 million and net income of $29.6 million for the first nine months of 2005, said it will pay $28 million for the Utah school that operates seven campuses in Utah, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada.
Once the acquisition is complete, Steiner will operate 14 massage training schools in eight states and be able to claim a position as a primary provider of massage therapists into the growing spa market. "We'll be able to train approximately 3,000 students [a year]," said Stephen Lazarus, a Steiner senior vice president.
In Salt Lake City, Utah College's founder Norman Cohn declined to comment on the transaction, but Lazarus said the combination of the Utah school's massage therapy programs and Steiner's specialized programs in skin care and other areas will provide an additional opportunity to increase student enrollments.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2006. And once completed, Cohn will step into a position on Steiner's management team.
Along with running spas on cruise ships, Steiner also markets a line of more than 250 beauty products and operates 50 resort spas around the world. In recent years it has been emphasizing the expansion of its land-based operations.
Among its recent deals: Steiner last year announced it reached an agreement to build and operate the spa at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel in Orlando. The company also recently expanded into Asia with agreements to operate six spas in Malaysia, the Maldives and Palau.
In a new report issued this week, the American Association of Massage Therapists indicated that massage therapy is a $6 billion to $11 billion industry and that employment opportunities for therapists are expected to increase by 21 percent to 35 percent by 2012, a pace that will exceed the growth rate of many other occupations.
It noted that 47 million American adults received a massage last year - an increase of 2 million more people than in 2004.
The majority of those who received a massage in the past five years did so for medical purposes, such as for muscle soreness and spasm, injury recovery and rehabilitation, and pain relief. But 26 percent were seeking relief from stress, the report noted.