The world's largest spa company Steiner Leisure has announced it is launching a new division, Stenier Spa Consulting (SSC), to be jointly headed by Jeff Matthews and Bruce Price.

Focussing on hotel spas, the global team will include 40 fulltime experts across business, education and spa operations, drawing from the company's expertise developing and managing over 200 spas.

Its scope of services includes concept and design, construction assistance and advice, recruitment and training, pre-opening planning, post-opening support and ongoing operations management.

It is also developing the Steiner Index - a predictive tool to assess the viability of spa projects, which will be made available as an industry-wide resource in June 2013.

Steiner spa product brands Mandara, Elemis, Bliss and Chavana will be available to hotel operators, developers and investors utilising SSC services, but clients will not be limited to using these brands.

SSC will also be able to draw training resources from the Steiner Education Group (SEG), which has educational centres worldwide and trains more than 5,000 graduates each year.

Director of global spa development and operations at Starwood, Jeremy McCarthy, said: "Steiner is a global spa powerhouse with an incredible reputation in the industry for their strong spa brands, results-oriented product lines, profitable spa operations, and their leadership in spa training and education.

"By putting their diverse expertise into consulting services they become an invaluable resource for anyone needing spa support from development to design to operations."