The hairdressing boss who rewarded his hardworking staff with a £3,000 Alpine skiing holiday plans to do the same next year - but next time the treat will be hang-gliding.

Christian Hefti shut up shop for a week and whisked his workers away to the French slopes in recognition of the fact that none of them had a day off sick in 1999.

Back this week at his salon, Christian, of Highgate, in Heaton, Bradford, vowed to do something similar next year.

"We had an absolutely fantastic time. I've been skiing lots of times, but none of the girls had done it before.

"There were no fall-outs and no broken bones, just a few bruises. But now they're all hooked and they've been asking when we're going on the next one.

"Next year we'll do something a bit more adventurous - hang-gliding perhaps."

Christian, 37, took six of his hairstylists and a beauty therapist to the ski resort of Les Deux Alpes, two hours from Lyon.

"It was wonderful to see their faces light up when they first saw the mountains - they were like children on Christmas Day," he added.

"They couldn't get over how there was snow on the ground yet the sun was shining. When it snows in Bradford it's miserable but in the mountains it's just heaven."

The girls spent their days in Ski School with 'dishy' instructor Emannuelle and by the end of the week were confident on the slopes.

And Christian said they also enjoyed the apres-ski.

"We certainly burned the candles at both ends - we ran out of candles! We were out every night. It's done us all the world of good and now we're all refreshed and in good spirits for the year ahead," he said.

Graduate stylist Rebecca Ormondroyd, who has worked at the salon for four years, said: "It was fantastic. By the end of the week I was quite good at skiing and can't wait to do it again.

"Christian is a great boss and we all really appreciated him taking us on holiday."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.