Caterer Middle East’s first conference on Bars & Nightlife took place yesterday at Mina a’ Salam, Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai.
The conference saw more than 120 delegates participate in discussions on the most pressing issues currently affecting the industry.
A lengthy first session on the evolution of the UAE’s nightlife scene drummed up some serious debate. Dave Cattanach, operations manager, Irish Village, noted how the volume of nightlife outlets over the past five years has grown phenomenally from a time during which “everyone knew each other” and “you called each other to find out your figures”. This seemed to be an issue commonly shared among many at the event.
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Sam Razaghi, club manager, Cirque du Soir, speaker for the session ‘Crafting an Outlet’s Unique Value Proposituon for Clientele’ asked why outlets had gone from a time where there was an element of community spirit to now feeling the need to compete against each other. “If your design concept is there, you shouldn’t worry about others – for us as operators, we get ideas from each other. We should support each other,” he asserted.
This was further supported by Fairmont Dubai mixologist, Joseph Mijares, who said it is better to complement rather than compete, adding that Fairmont’s F&B offering and the stand-alone outlets housed by the venue all work together to achieve a shared goal – to boost revenue of the hotel as opposed to compete with each other:
“Cirque du Soir has no customers at 9pm. Instead, people will go to Cin Cin or Cigar Lounge for pre-drinks before moving on to say Cavalli for a meal and then Cirque du Soir at the end of the evening.”
One of the main points to come out of the day was whether international brands are healthy for the UAE nightlife scene and while Motorga Heathcliff, bar manager Cavalli Club noted there was a serious need for more homegrown brands to be developed, others such as Mijares conceded that there was “no way of stopping them [international brands] ”, commenting that the UAE nightlife scene should be strong enough and developed enough to teach international brands new things. Markus Thesleff, founder, Okku, on the other hand welcomed the competition, so long as “they are bringing something different”.
Other issues discussed in some depth were the design of outlets and their impact on profitability.
Many shared their views of most nightlife outlets only being profitable during certain times of the day and certain days of the week – on average “six hours a week” according to Richard Haddon, club operations manager, Mo*vida Dubai.
Aidan Keane, founder, Keane Designs, asked whether outlets were then “spending too much money” investing in brands they were expecting to last forever. “I think it’s really important and there is definitely an international swing to this which is smaller, more niche, lower spend, probably quicker turn – I think there is a scope for putting [less money] into it and just flipping it in 18 months.” He talked about revisiting the current model by “spending less and changing more often.”
Today (Tuesday October 9) the Caterer Middle East Chefs & Ingredients Forum takes place. Keep your eye on hoteliermiddleeast.com for reports live from the conference.
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