Luminar defends 80p drink offer
Luminar boss Stephen Thomas has defended offering all drinks on selected nights for 80p or 90p.
The company is trialling a number of discount formats at four nightclubs around the country to drive sales. Oceania in Leeds is offering all drinks at 80p with 80p admission on Thursday night.
Liquid & Envy in Rotherham is offering drinks at 80p all night on a Friday. Life in Wellingborough is offering all drinks at 90p with no admission charge - the offer includes "everything customers see in the fridge and everything that comes out of the pumps".
Liquid in Mansfield is offering all drinks for 80p on a Sunday. The 90p offer in Wellingborough has boosted the number of admissions on a Thursday night from 244 customers to more than 800.
Luminar warned police and local authorities in each town that it would be forced down the heavy discount route unless they acted to curb extreme discounting by competitors.
Forced to respond
Thomas said: "People's perception of value around alcohol has changed. There's a highly competitive discounting arena in Leeds. We warned the authorities that if we lose volume we'll respond.
"You can buy two cases of Stella Artois from the supermarkets for £20 and the pubs have reacted.
"We have done everything we can to warn the authorities of that.
"We as an industry need to realise that supermarkets are our biggest competitor. The Government has done nothing about supermarkets and they are beating the hell out of us.
"The point about a nightclub is that if you are half-full, you're less than half-full the next week. No-one likes an empty nightclub - they need density (of customers). We are just testing the market - we could have done this across the estate."
Industry observers will be most surprised that Oceania in Leeds, one of the company's flagship venues which has been open for six years. has gone down the heavy discount route.
Its market position is predicated around charging a premium price for a well-invested multi-bar experience.
Thomas said that he thought customer had dropped a night of going out after seeing large increases in items like fuel bills.
Luminar was trying to "soften" the blow of increased personal costs by offering value nights, he added.
