U Glow was founded by Louise Cooper, a former engineer who ventured into the world of beauty. Louise, with a passion for innovation and armed with an engineering background recognised the need for a tanning solution that delivered a natural-looking, streak-free glow without the damaging effects of traditional tanning methods.

Louise dedicated years of research, testing, and collaboration with leading experts to bring her vision to life. After countless trials and experiments, Louise formulated the ground-breaking, award-winning product that has revolutionised the way people achieve a safe, radiant, and sun-kissed complexion.

Louise came to ScaleUp for advice to grow U Glow. Craig Huntingdon is a highly experience entrepreneur and helped with support in advisory capacity on many aspects of U Glow based on his own business experiences.

Louise comments “If Craig didn’t have the answers to any of my questions, with his wealth of connections he was able to put me in touch with someone who was able to guide me in more detail.  My business wouldn’t have grown to where it is now without his support.”

The challenges faced by U Glow was understanding where and how quickly it could grow and how this growth should be structured. Regular meetings with Craig enabled Louise to process her concerns with someone that knows how it feels and who has experienced it themselves with the relevant knowledge and background.

Craig comments: “Louise has built on her engineering background with science and chemistry to develop a product that will disrupt a large and well-established international market. Launching the product and successfully challenging household brands with such little physical resource or infrastructure is an impressive case study in terms of operating lean with maximum agility and huge tenacity. Scaleup North East was able to support Louise with mentorship and by providing an experienced external viewpoint in a trusted advisor capacity to help navigate challenges.”

The benefits ScaleUp has made to U Glow is streamlining the business and its growth plan and building a network of support businesses.

Louise comments “I found the engagement process amazing, whenever I have had a question, he was there ready with answer, he was happy for me to email over anything in between our meetings.  He was also able to support me before I went into meetings with third parties that were “outside my comfort zone” giving advice and guidance.”

What’s next for U Glow? U Glow is continuing with the growth, a statement that has become Louise’s new strap line ‘U Glow, is on its way to Tanning Global Domination’.

Louise comments: “The support I have received from Craig has been beyond anything I could have imagined; he has helped me to grow my business but also start to grow me as a person as business owner.  My strengths are in product development however, I am learning that you need strengths in many other directions to grow a business and Craig has been a fundamental part of the journey. I really can’t thank him enough and I very much look forwarding to continuing working with him.”

RTC North is delivering Scaleup North East in conjunction with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and is part- funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

For information on how the Scaleup team can support your company please email enquiries@rtcnorth.co.uk