Finance.Yahoo.com:
Planet Beach, one of the nation’s top spa franchises, continues to expand globally, with plans to open at least 15 overseas locations before year’s end.
The Contempo Spa franchise opened 34 domestic locations in 2011 and 12 more in the first five months of 2012. On May 1, Planet Beach opened a large location in Saudi Arabia and plans to open in Mullingar, Ireland, in July.
“We anticipate opening at least 15 locations internationally in 2012, but that, however, is a very conservative number,” said David Mesa, Planet Beach’s vice president of international development. “We’re hoping to open even more.”
Planet Beach will concentrate at first on expansions in Australia and the Middle East, where automated spa services allow customers to get massages and other treatments without violating Muslim standards of dress and touch.