Retail News CRM

Tag: night life

  • UK-based international chain bar Toy Room enters India

    UK-based international chain bar Toy Room enters India

    Toy Room, one of the most talked-about premium and international brand which has attracted visits from A-listers around the world including Jessie J, Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Scherzinger, has opened its first outlet in India in Aerocity. According to Akshay Anand, Owner Toy Room India, “Present in eight different countries, Toy Room is one of the biggest and hottest UK-based international entertainment brands with outposts already operating in London, Dubai, Istanbul, Rome, Mykonos, Athens, São Paulo and now India.”

    “This was the right time to introduce the brand in the country as food service industry is at its full-bloom all thanks to the well-informed and frequent travelling consumers,” he adds.

    Toy Room is the first international nightlife brand to enter the Indian market.

    Elaborating more about the brand, Anand says, “Toy Room is a playful, provocative, unpretentious and sexy place with a special focus on intimate hospitality and service and that is going to set it apart from other brands in the same category.”

    “With capacity for over 400 guests and a Hip-hop/ Rock ‘n’ Roll only music policy, Toy Room is derived from an urge to create an intimate setting for people to have fun,” he adds.

    Spanning across 4,500 sq.ft. Toy Room has been positioned as a finest party place that delivers an upscale nightclub experience with a focus on delivering premium hospitality, while still retaining its brand of sexy and provocative playfulness, which made it a worldwide sensation.

    The Toy Room brand internationally is known for placing children’s toys and imagery in an entertaining setting for adults, bringing together the notion of innocence alongside deviant party behaviour.

    “We are eyeing Rs 25 crore per annum revenue from Toy Room and going ahead we will be opening more outlets in Mumbai and Goa,” Anand concludes.

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  • Homeplus hosts 1st beer sommelier competition

    Homeplus hosts 1st beer sommelier competition

    Twenty-seven people have been awarded the auspicious title of beer sommelier by discount chain Homeplus. The discount chain’s first Macmelie Contest – macmelie is a portmanteau of the Korean word maekju, or beer, and sommelier – on Saturday saw 200 contestants gather at a convention center in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, to take a comprehensive test for a chance to become Homeplus-certified beer sommeliers.

    A total of 10,000 people had taken an online preliminary test to qualify to attend the Macmelie Contest.

    The 27 contestants who passed the test on Saturday with over 70 points out of a 100 were awarded Macmelie ID cards. They were also given the opportunity to be the first to try out Homeplus’ newest beer imports and work together with the company to develop new beer products.

    The test included a written paper, worth 60 points, and a more interactive round – inevitably including a beer tasting test – worth 40 points.

    Some of the written questions tested contestants’ basic knowledge of beer, for example by asking for the German city that hosts Oktoberfest or the brew’s four core ingredients. Other questions were more difficult. One asked for the historic period when Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria adopted the German Beer Purity Law, while another asked for the number of indents that beer bottle caps have.

    The interactive questions were also challenging. Contestants had to guess how many milliliters of beer a cup held and also identify beer types by taste.

    Lee Ik-jin scored the highest out of all contestants with 84 points. “I didn’t expect to win first place, but I think my experience drinking a lot of beer in the past helped.”

    Homeplus currently offers around 690 types of local and foreign beer. The company says it hopes to enrich Korea’s beer consumption culture through its Macmelie contest.

    “We’ve been offering beer from around the world to meet rising demand that we are now even called the beer mecca,” said Kim Min-soo, a brand marketing manager at Homeplus.

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  • Hard Rock Cafe to be reintroduced in Philippines

    Hard Rock Cafe to be reintroduced in Philippines

    Bistro Group has acquired the exclusive franchise for Hard Rock Cafe in the Philippines, planning to reintroduce the brand in the region after a year’s absence. The Hard Rock group has high hopes for the partnership given the new local partner’s proven performance in the “Western-driven market.”

    Area franchise development VP Steve Yang said: “The Bistro Group is a strong industry player and with its robust portfolio of brands as well as its track record for more than 20 years, we are confident that they will be a strong partner to help us take Hard Rock Cafe in the Philippines to the next level.”

    The new Hard Rock Cafe will open next month in a 653sqm space at the Conrad S Maison mall in Pasay City, with four to five branches potentially in the works for Cebu and Bonifacio Global City.

    “Putting Hard Rock inside a mall is in response to the current lifestyle trend and is one of the best locations we’ve seen in our operations,” Yang said.

    Hard Rock’s VP for franchise operations and development Anibal Fernandez said the company wants to expand its presence in high-growth markets frequented by locals and tourists.

    “Last year alone we launched cafes in Spain, Austria, South Africa, Andorra, Bolivia, India, Cambodia, Myanmar, Argentina and Nicaragua. In 2018 we are developing in Africa, Middle East, Europe, North and South America, South Asia and China, among others.”