Boss of PRYZM blames students not going out as much for club closures

The boss of the UK’s largest nightclub chain has blamed students pre-drinking and not going out mid-week for the closure of clubs.

Rekom, the owner of a chain of PRYZM and Atik nightclubs, announced earlier this month that 17 venues would close which would also result in the loss of 500 jobs after going bust.

Peter Marks, the head of Rekom, said students have been hit by the cost of living crisis and therefore are cutting back on clubbing and leading to closures, reports the BBC.

PRYZM clubs shut their doors in cities such as Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Watford along with Atik clubs in Dartford, Romford, Windsor and Wrexham.

Marks said that students were going out later and spending less, making it difficult for the nightclub industry.

Speaking to the BBC he said that pressures created as a result of the cost of living crisis were “singularly the biggest issue that we face”

Rekom’s biggest earners have been nightclubs situated in city centres which were aimed at the student market, but after making a visit to Leeds mid-week Marks noticed a problem saying: “I walked around between 7pm and 11pm, and there were no more than 200 people out in the city. Two years before, it would have been really quite busy and buzzing.”

The company, which owns the chains of nightclubs, has also had to cope with increases in bills and rent as well as increasing wage costs to meet the National Living Wage.

Marks explained that wages account for 30 to 40 per cent saying: “For every £100 we take, we are spending between £30 and £40 on wages.”

These string of closures comes as new data suggests that nearly 400 clubs closed its doors between March 2020 and December 2023, which according to the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) equates to 10 closures per month and two every week.

This comes after staff at the Nottingham branch were told that their ‘jobs were safe’ then informed of closures through a work group chat.

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