Night club business in Lagos is probably one of the most dynamic and transient business models in the country. Clubs come and go like diapers making owners scramble to recoup their investment within the shortest possible time. Usually, the only constant things in clubs and bars is the name change and the structure that houses it. However, business owners will always find creative ways to mitigate risk and ensure their businesses outlast competition even if it doesn’t transcend to a positive bottom line.
One of such models that has become increasingly popular of late, is having a 24hours cycle business that combines both the high night and daily traffic of an eatery and the all night binge of alcohol and partying club life brings. Its a model that “The Place” has brought into this business starting from its inaugural branch in ?Isaac John GRA Ikeja. During the day and late into the evening customers troop in to eat assorted meals. It is sort of like a hub where people, particularly younger ones, meet up to eat, drink and gist. At night it turns into a night club or even an events place with party goers and show business buffs trooping in their numbers to have fun. Most in an around Ikeja consider the night clubs there a spot for the lower middle income earners and students with vey limited financial muscle making skeptics predict their failure when they decided to make in roads into Lekki Phase 1.
Before its arrival in Lekki Phase, joints like G’s Lounge, E Bar and Sailors held sway, now The Place has established a firm presence in the ever growing club business in Lekki. Most attribute the rise in clubs, bars and restaurants in to the toll gates which have made crossing into VI and Ikoyi less attractive to most party goers. But the rapid rise of the place and its apparent success at stifling competition at late nights shows just why the symbiotic combination of food and drinks works just perfectly. Add to that is the risky but successful decision to cut the prices of their drinks. A bottle of Champaign goes for N15,000 against the N20,000 its rivals charge. A bottle of Belvedere Vodka also goes for N15,000, N3000 to N5,000 less than is sold in rival bars. The DJ is also very intuitive using the pulse of the crowd to gauge what he plays.
Clubs in Lekki in general have broken new grounds in 2012, ensuring that for the first time club goers don’t mind driving all the way to have fun and relieve themselves of the more expensive VI clubs, which by the way have mostly remained empty. The rapidly growing Lekki area in Lagos will in future create a whole new demographic for entertainment on the island in general enabling people patronize venues close to them. These may all well be a coincident but its not hard to deny the fact that the joints in Lekki are doing a pretty damn job at attracting people from within and outside. Whether this will last is perhaps a persistent speculation.
