| Type | Public (LSE: LMR) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Entertainment |
| Founded | Kings Lynn (1988) |
| Headquarters | Milton Keynes, UK |
| Area served | United Kingdom |
| Key people |
Philip Bowcock, Finance director |
| Revenue | £201.3m (2008) |
| Operating income | £31.5m (2008) |
| Subsidiaries | Liquid Nightclubs |
| Website | luminar.co.uk |
| References: Owner of the UK's main chain of nightclubs | |
Luminar Group Holdings plc is a public limited company operating leisure and entertainment venues throughout the United Kingdom.[1] Luminar currently specialises in nightclubs, bars and restaurants but is struggling due to difficult market conditions, it has recently started struggling to pay its debts and is in discussions to work out a long term solution. It has started offering 80p drinks offers to entice customers away from cheaper supermarket alcohol as a short term solution to help make payments on its debts.[2] It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index. Its most recent peak was in 2007, when shares were worth over £8 each. It has since plummeted in value and is currently worth 0.79p per share as of 10 October 2011.
Luminar Group Holdings was placed into Administration on 28 October 2011, unable to meet its obligations to lending banks.[3][4] Its shares were suspended at 0.38p each.
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Luminar Group Holdings plc was established in 1988 with the opening of its first nightclub, Manhattan Nitespot in King's Lynn, Norfolk. The continued growth in the discotheque division and the creation of the popular Chicago Rock Cafe concept meant Luminar became the most successful leisure company of the early 1990s.[5] It floated on the stock exchange in May 1996. There was a large expansion of Chicago Rock Cafes in the late 1990s. It also owned a couple of themed Australian restaurants, Tuckers Smokehouse, which opened in Kettering and Chelmsford. From August 1999 there were discussions with Northern Leisure about a possible merger. In November 1999, Luminar bought twenty nightclubs and seven bars from Allied Leisure for £34m.
This acquisition and the merger talks led to Luminar's most important point in its history when it bought Northern Leisure in May 2000 for £392m with a combined total of 237 nightclubs and late-night bars. In 2001 it opened 41 new venues, 44 in 2002, and 30 in 2003. In November 2003, it consolidated its range of nightclub brands into the four main divisions - Oceana, Liquid, Life and Lava-Ignite. In June 2005, it sold 49 nightclubs to a management buyout, which became CanDu Entertainment for £27m (which was later bought by Agilo in March 2008 after entering many administration in March 2008).
Luminar sold the Entertainment division that included the Jumpin Jaks and Chicago Rock Cafe brands to 3D Entertainment in December 2006 for £79m, in a sale and leaseback deal.[6]
Currently the company has numerous brands and products across the country. Brands include Lava & Ignite, Life, Oceana, Bar Rock, JJ's and Liquid.[7] Products include UK Club Culture (club nights for under 18's),[8] Red Carpet Moments (Event Management),[9] Waster (A music night),[10] Big Night Out (themed club nights)[11] and Vibe (An urban music night).[12] As well as running large brands of nightclubs Luminar operate several smaller, independent clubs. A wide selection of the venues were previously known as "Time" & "Envy", which have since been re-branded to either "Liquid" & "Envy" or "Oceana". In addition, some of the "Liquid" & "Envy" clubs were formerly of the "Ikon" & "Diva" and "Lava" & "Ignite" brands.The Jam House brand was sold in 2010 and is not part of luminar.
As of March 2010, Luminar has been regularly reviewing all its nightclub units and has disposed of 12 units . A further 4 units are up for sale.
These venues are not held by Helena Leisure Ltd.
The UK Club Network (UKCN) is Luminar's public brand facing customers of their nightclubs. Despite the different name, UK Club Network is exactly the same as Luminar. Customers who buy memberships to UKCN get benefits at all of Luminar's clubs.