Britain’s biggest nightclub operator is swapping discos for bars as cash-strapped students ditch the dancefloor.
The Danish owners of Rekom, operator of the Pryzm, Fiction and Eden brands, have hired AlixPartners to help pivot the business towards bars and away from nightclubs.
The involvement of Alix, well known for providing restructuring advice, has stoked speculation that Rekom’s UK arm was facing a squeeze on its finances. Peter Marks, the veteran nightclub executive that heads Rekom’s UK arm, insisted yesterday that Alix was brought in to independently verify the plans. Alix did not comment.
Rekom Group operates 200 bars, pubs and nightclubs across Denmark, Norway, Finland, and the UK. It is backed by Danish private equity firm CataCap. It bolstered its UK arm by buying Deltic out of administration in 2020. Deltic itself emerged from the Luminar empire of the late “disco king” Steve Thomas.
Rekom now operates 36 UK clubs and 12 bars. Marks said its nightclubs are struggling because of poor midweek trading that is driven by students. It will sell off some nightclubs and open new bars under the Proud Mary and Heidi’s Bier Bar brands.
Marks said: “The student pound is stretched and we have chosen not to open a lot of early week sessions. Stakeholders are looking for independent verification that the right thing to do is to concentrate our efforts more in the bar market, which has a wider trading window and wider demographic.”
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