Luminar plans investment for Oceana brand transformation

The nine-strong brand will be changed from a two-club, five-bar concept to a three-room, two-bar design. Each room will offer a different music style: mainstream, retro and “something for more sophisticated music tastes”. This could include R&B or another form of dance music.

A trial of the concept in Cardiff from 1 December “worked very well indeed”, Marks said.

“That’s going to be our template for dealing with the Oceana brand.” He hopes to have implemented it across all Oceanas over the next two to three years at a cost of around £500,000 each. The Kingston site would probably be next, Marks said, depending in the outcome of the upcoming hearing into its licence.

This would probably be followed by Bristol then Leeds.

In each case the type of music in the third room would be driven by the local market, Marks said.

He explained: “The average clubber is aged 18 to 22. Thereafter, we’ve lost the 23/24/25 year-olds. As they get older they want different things, they want a little bit more luxury, a bit more sophistication, a little bit better service.

“We’ve got large venues that can actually accommodate a different feel in certain areas of these business. So we can put together better VIP areas, better lounges, or alternatively, from the point of view of music, some thing different, something more sophisticated.

“I think the mainstream is always going to Luminar’s market. But where we’ve got second and third rooms, we need to be different from the neighbour. We need growth in those areas.”

Nine full refurbishments and four small upgrades have taken place since the Marks-led group bought Luminar, which operates 56 sites, out of administration at the end of 2011. Marks said the plan is to complete between eight and 13 this financial year.