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A beauty academy in Batley Carr is opening training schools across Scandinavia after its owner spotted a gap in the market.

Salma’s Beauty Academy on Bradford Road has an annual turnover of around a quarter of a million pounds and attracts students from far and wide.

Owner Salma Laher has set the industry standard for threading - an ancient method of hair removal - and travels across the country training others.

Salma’s own brand of beauty products, Salon Xperts, which includes threading oils, tanning products and nail varnishes, is also growing in popularity, and helped her break through to the Netherlands.

Salma, 27, said: “I had contacts in Scandinavia who were using my products and I also found that I was getting a lot of students coming from there to train at my academy.

“That made me think that perhaps there was a gap in the market for training schools there so I started looking into it and now have academies opening in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

“The staff will be trained to our standards and the academies will offer accredited training courses like we do at our Batley school.

“The hardest thing about setting up abroad has been finding the staff but we’ve got there. It’s an exciting time and I’m hoping it will be a success.”

Salma was named Female Entrepreneur of the Year at the Yorkshire Enterprise and Diversity Awards in April after wowing judges with her determination to turn a hobby into a successful business.

Four years ago, Salma never dreamed she would be the owner of a beauty training school that would expand to foreign shores. After studying health and social care at university, Salma had plans to become a midwife.

Despite giving beauty treatments and makeovers to friends and family for years, going into the beauty industry was never her plan.

But after being offered a job to teach threading in Liverpool by someone she knew, Salma made the bold decision to step out on her own.