Luminar Group Holdings plc is a public limited company operating leisure and entertainment venues throughout the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. 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. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...

 and is a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index

FTSE Fledgling Index

The FTSE Fledgling Index consists of under 200 UK companies outside of the FTSE All-Share Index.This Index is calculated in real-time and published every minute.-Current constituents of the FTSE Fledgling Index:*AEA Technology*AXA Property Trust Ld...

. 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 10th October 2011.

Luminar Group Holdings was placed into Administration on 28th October 2011, unable to meet its obligations to lending banks. Its shares were suspended at 0.38p each.

History

Luminar Group Holdings plc was established in 1988 with the opening of its first nightclub, Manhattan Nitespot in King's Lynn

King's Lynn

King's Lynn is a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England. It is situated north of London and west of Norwich. The population of the town is 42,800....

, Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

. 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. It floated on the stock exchange in May 1996. There was a large expansion of Chicago Rock Cafes in the late 1990s. It also opened a couple of themed Australian restaurants, Tuckers Smokehouse, 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.

Northern Leisure

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

Management buyout

A management buyout is a form of acquisition where a company's existing managers acquire a large part or all of the company.- Overview :Management buyouts are similar in all major legal aspects to any other acquisition of a company...

, which became CanDu Entertainment for £27m (which was later bought by Agilo in March 2008 after entering many administration in March 2008).

Disposal of Jumpin Jaks and Chicago Rock Cafe

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

Leaseback

Leaseback, short for sale-and-leaseback, is a financial transaction, where one sells an asset and leases it back for the long-term; therefore, one continues to be able to use the asset but no longer owns it...

 deal.

Range of nightclubs

Currently the company has numerous brands and products across the country. Brands include Lava & Ignite, Life, Oceana

Oceana (Nightclub)

Oceana is a chain of nightclubs in the United Kingdom owned and managed by Luminar Leisure. There are Oceana venues in Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Kingston, Leeds, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Plymouth, Southampton, Swansea, Watford and Wolverhampton....

, Bar Rock, JJ's and Liquid. Products include UK Club Culture (club nights for under 18's), Red Carpet Moments (Event Management), Waster (A music night), Big Night Out (themed club nights) and Vibe (An urban music night). 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.

Jumpin Jaks Locations

• Jumpin Jaks Basildon
• Jumpin Jaks Coventry
• Jumpin Jaks Hanley
• Jumpin Jaks Lincoln
• Jumpin Jaks Maidstone

These venues are not held by Helena Leisure Ltd.

Lava & Ignite Locations

• Lava, Ignite & Disco Bournemouth
• Lava and Ignite Burnley
• Lava and Ignite Edinburgh
• Lava and Ignite Oxford
• Lava and Ignite Preston

Liquid Locations

• Liquid and Envy Aberdeen
• Liquid and Envy Ashford
• Liquid and Envy Basildon
• Liquid and Envy Blackburn
• Liquid and Envy Colchester
• Liquid and Envy Dundee
• Liquid and Diva Gloucester
• Liquid and Maine Street Halifax
• Liquid and Envy Hanley
• Liquid and Envy Ipswich
• Liquid and Envy Leicester
• Liquid and Envy Luton
• Liquid and Envy Maidstone
• Liquid and Envy Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
• Liquid and Envy Oldham
• Liquid and Envy Peterborough
• Liquid and Envy Portsmouth
• Liquid and Envy Romford
• Liquid and Envy Rotherham
• Liquid and Envy Uxbridge
• Liquid Windsor
• Liquid and Envy Wrexham

New York New York Locations

• New York New York Basildon
• New York New York Peterborough
• New York New York Preston
• New York New York Bedford

Oceana Locations

• Oceana Birmingham
• Oceana Brighton
• Oceana Bristol
• Oceana Cardiff
• Oceana Kingston-Upon-Thames
• Oceana Leeds
• Oceana Milton Keynes
• Oceana Nottingham
• Oceana Plymouth
• Oceana Southampton
• Oceana Swansea
• Oceana Watford
• Oceana Wolverhampton

Other Locations

• Chill Canterbury
• Kings Eastbourne
• Arena Exeter
• Sugar Mill Hull
• Squires Preston
• Batchwood Hall St Albans
• Trinity Tamworth
• The Gallery York
• Ballare Cambridge
• Project Norwich

UK Club Network

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.