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JG
Joined: 08 Aug 2009
Posts: 5
Location: Kansas City, MO
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 Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:34 pm Post subject: [News] Playboy's new boss plots a club revival |
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-thu-burns-playboy-1008-oct08,0,825792.column
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In the three months since Scott Flanders took over for Christie Hefner as CEO of Playboy Enterprises Inc., he has come to a simple conclusion about its magazine, TV and digital media businesses:
Tough way to make money.
So in the coming months, Flanders will be placing his bet on two long overshadowed operations: product licensing and Playboy clubs.
In a revealing interview this week, Flanders outlined his new plan to turn around a struggling Chicago icon that flirted with the sale block shortly before his arrival.
Flanders said he can significantly boost revenues from licensing the famous Playboy brand on apparel and other consumer products, especially in emerging economies overseas.
But the biggest upside, in his view, can't be found in the tired magazine, hard-core sex videos or Playboy TV channel that were his predecessor's focus. Instead, he sees the future in a throwback to the company's past: Playboy clubs.
Flanders is pursuing joint ventures with proven operators to launch new nightclubs around the world and, he hopes, restore the company's financial luster after a string of losses.
Playboy now has just one club -- at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. But it's going strong despite the recession, he said.
Flanders wants a rollout numbering in the "double-digits" over the next few years, he said. That will include new venues opening in Mexico within months, in Miami next year and in Macau during 2011.
Playboy will supply the rabbit-head logo and attendant cachet, he said. "Exploiting our brand will increasingly become our core business."
Still controlled by 83-year-old founder Hugh Hefner from his mansion in Beverly Hills, Playboy hired Flanders after showing the door to an interim CEO who spoke openly about selling the company. Flanders' outsider status -- he formerly ran newspaper chain Freedom Communications Inc. -- made him a bold pick at a firm headed by Hefner's daughter since 1988.
"I'm sure Hef will say, 'Let's see what this guy can do,' " said analyst Steve Marascia, director of research at Capitol Securities Management in Virginia.
The new club-and-licensing strategy "sounds good," Marascia said. "But that's a real change. What if somebody else's club is hotter? Where will they get the capital to build all these clubs? Looks like they're going to trade one set of challenges for another."
In fact, similar challenges nearly sunk Playboy in the mid-1980s. At its peak, the company owned or licensed dozens of clubs frequented by 1 million "key-holders," but the operation aged badly. Around the same time, its highly profitable casinos fell to a hostile regulatory environment, and indiscriminate licensing put the brand on car air fresheners and other cheap products.
Over the past decade, Playboy's licensing effort has moved upscale, becoming a consistent moneymaker. Flanders this week promoted licensing guru Alex Vaickus to the new post of president, with instructions to grow. "We underresourced licensing and treated it as a nice-to-have ancillary business," Flanders said. "We believe licensing could be a lot bigger for us."
Vaickus also is charged with unifying the media operations that even today rarely work together by using the same content across all platforms, Flanders said.
Playboy has no plans to shut the magazine but has hinted at drastic cuts in frequency, circulation and pages. Playboy TV has room to grow, Flanders said, and the company's subscription Web sites have held their own against piracy and competition from free sites.
Still, Flanders leaves no doubt about where Playboy will be looking for action. "There is no segment of our business that will grow as rapidly as our location-based entertainment," he said.
The night life beckons. |
Bring. It. On!
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Alan
Site Admin
Joined: 10 Oct 2000
Posts: 193
Location: Scotland
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| Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 3:58 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for posting this.
I was tempted to post this news myself, but there have been so many false dawns for the return of the clubs. I hope it happens and the new clubs succeed (the more that do, the more will open).
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BunnyFan
Joined: 14 Jun 2007
Posts: 51
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| Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:14 pm Post subject: |
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I'm surprised that they haven't opened a London club yet since the old one was the biggest income for the company for a while... it has been talked about ever since the Vegas one opened.
It's probably due to some legal complications but it just makes sense to me.. since it worked so well in the past. 
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Alan
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Joined: 10 Oct 2000
Posts: 193
Location: Scotland
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| Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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| BunnyFan wrote: |
I'm surprised that they haven't opened a London club yet since the old one was the biggest income for the company for a while... it has been talked about ever since the Vegas one opened.
It's probably due to some legal complications but it just makes sense to me.. since it worked so well in the past. |
There's a long answer to that, but (for once) I'll try to give a short one (not likely).
Playboy has been looking to re-open a London Club for a loooong time. Back in 1999, when they were holding Bunny Hunts (in London, Paris and Munich) for the Rhodes casino, the spokespeople said if it was a success Playboy would open more clubs around the world, including London.
But the Rhodes venture was a failure (they couldn't get planning permission for a new colossus wearing Bunny ears... I jest).
But despite that, Playboy continued plans to open a London casino in partnership with one-time bitter enemy Ladbrokes. Then Gala bought Ladbrokes but didn't take up the Playboy option. Even Gala's once ubiquitous Bingo Halls folded (another victim, like Playboy itself, of online competition).
Christie Hefner always said that Playboy were still looking at locations and options for another London casino, and the new CEO, Scott Flanders, has stated the same.
It's difficult in Britain because we have tight gambling/gaming laws (which Playboy fell foul of first time around in 1981).
If it was easy and there existed a choice of good partners, Playboy would have opened a new casino/club by now. There's no real equivalent to the Palms in London.
But I think a new London Playboy Club would be a tourist attraction, I'm not so sure there is a great gambling market anymore like there was in the Sixties and Seventies. The Arabs don't really come to London to gamble anymore, instead they buy up our property and football clubs!!
Just like the Yanks and Ruskies!!
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BunnyFan
Joined: 14 Jun 2007
Posts: 51
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| Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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Ok!
I recently moved to London and have been doing some field research on the Playboy Club, old and new.
I read an article in March which talked about the return of the Playboy club to London (which I didn't post here since there have been so many of these articles in recent years) but found it interesting that this article mentioned a possible location for the new club, the Rendezvous casino on Old Park Lane, only a short distance from the old club.
The article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1259526/Playboy-wants-play-again.html
So I recently went by the Rendezvous to check out if there was any construction going on or something else indicating that something was happening and what I found was quite interesting. :)
There was no construction going on on the premises but this was posted in the windows by the front entrance, all of it is an interesting read but I've placed a box around the parts I found most interesting:
Seems like Playboy is really trying to make this happen and according to this the time period to complain has now ended. I'm very excited to see what happens next, maybe I'll actually get to be a London bunny after all.
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BunnyFan
Joined: 14 Jun 2007
Posts: 51
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| Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2010 12:17 am Post subject: |
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Hef Just "tweeted" this about an hour ago:
"The Bunny is back! In addition to Vegas, Playboy Clubs are opening in Macau (Nov), Cancun & London (May)."
"The much anticipated English Playboy Club Casino will be located in the exclusive Mayfair area of London."
http://twitter.com/hughhefner
I guess they got the permits they needed! :D
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