LifeBrandz chief executive Bernard Lim has come out swinging at detractors, quashing talk of his company being in trouble.
The past two years has seen a number of the nightlife group's venues, including Yello Jello and the high-profile Cafe Del Mar, close.
Last month, The New Paper reported that LifeBrandz was closing its 1,728 sq m dance club Zirca, after a four-year run at Clarke Quay.
Staff there were told of the closure only on Feb 19, the day of the announcement. Zirca closed three days later.
This latest closure came as LifeBrandz posted a loss of $4.4million for 2012, prompting speculation of a bleak future.
When asked to explain Zirca's abrupt closure, Mr Lim, 44, says that plans had been in the works for the past "two months".
"We planned for Zirca's closing for a while, but we never announced it.
"Obviously, as a listed company, a lot of things need to be planned ahead... plus the deal with Massive Collective is a big thing, so we have to keep things under wraps."
Massive Collective is a lifestyle management agency and that deal - announced on Monday - involves it becoming a major shareholder in LifeBrandz.
LifeBrandz will in turn take over operations of nightspots Mink and Royal Room at Pan Pacific Singapore.
Previously, they were owned by Royal Concept and Qumulus, a company in which Massive Collective was a key stakeholder.
In Monday's press release, LifeBrandz said it had agreed to buy over Qumulus, giving Massive a 14.05 per cent stake - valued at $3.48 million - in the group.
The two companies have been collaborating since December 2011 when Massive began handling promotions for Zirca.
Mr Lim says hiring external promoters to help push a club is not unusual.
"The clubbing landscape has changed. The days of printing a flier and hoping for the best are gone. The market is so saturated. So to pull people to your club, you hire promoters. They are opinion leaders," says Mr Lim.
Last year, Massive and LifeBrandz opened a 743 sq m lounge at Clarke Quay called Playhouse.
Mr Lim is possibly most famous as a DJ turned TV host (on the local version of Wheel Of Fortune).
Tipped for greatness, he rose through the ranks of MediaCorp Radio - from director of Class 95 FM to general manager of English programming - before becoming vice-president.
He joined LifeBrandz in 2007 and is currently CEO and executive director, making him responsible for planning the group's direction and growth.
The plan now includes another go at bringing nightlife to the venue that was Zirca.
In April last year, the group renewed its lease - for an undisclosed sum - for another six years with Clarke Quay landlord CapitaLand.
March 15 will see the unveiling of a new - albeit smaller - dance club called Dream. The club will occupy more than 830sqm at the venue.
Mr Lim says that it will feature "a futuristic look" as well as "a smaller dance floor with more posh VIP areas for the customers".
The music, like Zirca's, will be commercial electro music.
Other concepts - which Mr Lim says he "still needs to play around with" - will occupy the remaining space.
He says: "Zirca had been around for four years. To me, it's a long time. We realised the Zirca space was too big so we wanted to introduce something more compact.
"I think there were some who felt an era had passed."
While there is a plus point in that the Zirca staff will still be employed by the group, there was speculation that Zirca closed because it was locked in an area overwhelmed with clubbing options but with fewer people visiting.
Mr Lim's reply is a firm "No".
"Contrary to speculation, we don't think people are not visiting Clarke Quay. On weekends, you still see a lot of people here."
Mr Lim says LifeBrandz would continue to operate its other nightlife venues in Clarke Quay including live music venue Aquanova, hip-hop club Rebel and Irish pub Mulligan's.
He denies the Massive deal is a sign of a change of concept for LifeBrandz.
"I would say no," he says. "We realised in the last six months we should collaborate further. Massive helps us with promotions while we have the central location.
"We are about to take it to another level."
What's in a Dream
Size: 836.13 sq m
Capacity: 700 people
Interior features:
- Two VIP podium seating areas
New sound and lighting system:
- Intelligent master management system to balance the sound output to the demands of the room
- Line array flying speakers, 6 cabinets per side
Dream will be the first dance club here to have video mapping technology as a permanent feature.
Video Projection Mapping blends visuals to music which helps change the mood in a room.
Videos can be programmed to suit different theme nights.
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