Hard
Rock Bringing in Live Music
By MIKE SCHNEIDER AP
02:26 PM ET 09/25/00
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)
The Hard Rock Cafe made its name with music
memorabilia, guitars and gold albums safely preserved
behind display-case glass. Now, after a decade of
falling merchandise sales and the implosion of the
themed restaurant industry, the granddaddy of theme
restaurants hopes to bring in new business by taking
the music down from the wall and onto the stage.
Approaching its 30th
birthday, Hard Rock Cafe International is planning a
new emphasis on live music in its 103 restaurants
worldwide. Hours will be extended late into the night
for performances. The 55 restaurants actually owned by
the chain will be redesigned or relocated to create
space for live performances; the remaining restaurants
are franchises.
The Orlando-based
company also is redesigning its Web site with the aim
of making it a top music destination on the Web. It
also recently joined with eBay to sell rock
memorabilia and Hard Rock collectibles over the
Internet.
Hard Rock officials
hope the new focus on live music further distances the
company from its themed restaurant competitors, many
of which have disappeared or are struggling in a
shakeout that began in the mid-1990s.
``As some of our
competition is starting to exit the market or wither
on the vine, we really stepped up the pace on creating
value for our 27 million guests worldwide,'' said
Peter J. Beaudrault, who became Hard Rock's president
and chief operating officer last year after a
management reorganization.
The Hard Rock brand
is in dire need of revitalization, analysts say, after
experiencing a decade of declining merchandise sales,
which account for almost half of the company's
revenue. ``What they're attempting to do at Hard Rock
makes a lot of sense,'' said Philip Olesen, an analyst
for Warburg Dillon Read in Stamford, Conn. ``It makes
it more than a tourist destination, so people come
back time and again and it offers more than T-shirts
and mediocre food.''
Changes also will be
made to Hard Rock's menu. No longer content with just
burgers and chicken wings, Hard Rock chefs are adding
12 new higher-end items such as stuffed veal chops for
$26.95 and lobster tails for $19.95.
Hard Rock is owned
by London-based Rank Group, which in the past year has
sold off large parts of its entertainment empire. As a
result, Hard Rock may be able to get more capital and
attention than it has in the past, Olesen said.
Unlike other themed
restaurant chains, such as Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock
has been growing at a steady pace during the past
decade and is making money.
In 1988, there were
only five restaurants worldwide. Now there are 103
restaurants in 38 nations, four Hard Rock Live concert
venues and a weekly cable television program on VH-1.
The company also operates two Hard Rock hotels, with
plans to open two more next year. The company plans to
open as many as eight new restaurants a year and build
as many as eight more hotels in five years.
Hard Rock last year
had a profit of $68 million on sales of $388 million.
For the first six months of the year, Hard Rock had
$34.5 million profit on more than $200 million in
sales, according to the company.
In renewing its
focus on music, Hard Rock isn't straying very far from
its roots. The first restaurant was opened in London
in 1971 by founders Peter Morton and Isaac Tigrett.
The restaurant's first rock memorabilia came from Eric
Clapton, a regular customer, who asked if he could
hang a guitar on the wall to mark his favorite bar
stool. The Who's Pete Townsend followed suit a week
later with a donated guitar.
The company now has
a rock memorabilia collection valued at $32 million.
Company officials
are looking to their renovated Chicago restaurant as a
model for what the future holds. The octagon-shaped,
dark-wood bar has been replaced with an open-space bar
visible from every area in the restaurant. A 17-foot
high tower of video screens, glowing behind liquor
bottles, is mounted behind the bar serving as an
eye-catching, incandescent icon. And the cafe is
keeping its doors open late for music in a
newly-constructed performance area.
``After nine or 10
o'clock, we were typically shutting down,'' said
Christopher Tomasso, senior director of marketing and
productions. ``Now we're going to get cranking up.''
Related Links:
www.hardrock.com
www.rank.com
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