The founder of budget health club operator Pure Gym, Peter Roberts, has launched a new salon concept which aims to “transform” the UK’s beauty market.

Spruce Moose will become the UK’s first nationwide beauty business to operate a membership model, offering up to 40 per cent off treatments to those who sign up. The model is similar to that currently operated by French company Bodyminute.

The venture is being launched by Roberts alongside two former Pure Gym directors – ex-development director Brian Scurrah and former property director Angela Crawshaw.

The first Spruce Moose is set to open later this month at the newly-opened Everyman cinema and retail complex in Harrogate, Yorkshire.

According to Tom Hodgson, a surveyor at Pudney Shuttleworth – the property agent which is assisting Spruce Moose to find UK locations – the three owners have made a £250,000 investment in the Harrogate site.

"We looked at a few different locations in the major northern cities but settled on Harrogate as the ideal town to showcase the first Spruce Moose,” Hodgson said. “Getting the first location right for was imperative for the brand's image.

"This location in particular, within the new Everyman Cinema scheme, next door to Cote Brasserie is perfectly sandwiched in between Harrogate's retail and office core, both of which are Spruce Moose's core markets.

"The next towns and cities to be ticked off are likely to be Leeds, Manchester and York in the short term, with a full UK roll-out being the ultimate strategy."

The exact details of the facilities at the 2,200sq ft (204sq m) salon in Harrogate are yet to be confirmed.