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Non-Tech : RAINFOREST CAFE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sharon A. Gray who wrote (4103)	3/20/1998 6:09:00 PM
From: Dennis Vail	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4704

Thanks for the info, Sharon. Here's the article on Robert Earl ROBERT EARL is standing at the window of his 44th-floor hotel room, looking out over the sea of lights in Midtown Manhattan. He has removed the tie from his yellow and black striped shirt and kicked off his shoes, displaying yellow, blue and green striped socks. The belt comes off as well. Mr Earl is hard to stop once he has gathered pace. The British chief executive of Planet Hollywood spent the morning in Kansas City, met bankers at Salomon Brothers on Wall Street during the afternoon and is now preparing for a speech before flying back to his base in Orlando, Florida. He made Planet Hollywood into the world's biggest themed restaurant chain. Now he is focusing on new sectors. The All-Star Cafe, sponsored by famous sportsmen, is already following the expansion path of the film-based Planet Hollywood eateries. A third, music-based, chain of restaurants is rapidly evolving. But Mr Earl's plans go far beyond fashionable eating places. Hotels, cinemas - and even the ice cream to eat while you watch the film - are all on his agenda. Manchester is already believed to have been lined up as the site for the first Planet Movies in the UK. With his bankers, Mr Earl has put together a US$250 million financing package to build 13 lodging, gaming and cinema complexes in a joint venture with Kansas City-based cinema giant AMC Theatres. Each will have a Planet Hollywood restaurant, and the idea is that the cinemas and cafes will draw customers for each other. Mr Earl sees enormous scope for bringing the Planet Hollywood name into new areas. The most high-profile part of his strategy is a plan to build a Las Vegas casino, hotel and restaurant complex on the famous Strip. It will be part of the redeveloped Aladdin complex, where the United Kingdom's London Clubs International is involved. "Lodging and gaming are where a significant part of the company's future growth strategy lies," Mr Earl says. His first themed hotel, a 1,700-room establishment with a sports theme, is already being built opposite Madison Square Garden in New York. These new enthusiasms have not deflected him from the basis of his fortune, food served up in fashionable form, but Mr Earl is careful not to use the term "themed restaurant" - almost synonymous with his name - when he talks about his new music eateries. They will not look anything like the memorabilia-stuffed Hard Rock Cafes that Mr Earl developed before setting up Planet Hollywood. Mr Earl is suing the Cafe owners, Rank Group, for GBP100 million (about HK$1.29 billion) which he claims he is still owed. The music eateries' departure from the themed restaurant idea will be emphasised by the absence of "Planet Hollywood" in the name. Mr Earl could have called them "Planet Music", but wanted a new approach. The Planet Hollywood restaurants are often filled with tourists but music eateries will be aimed at the local market. Mr Earl is trying to integrate the restaurants locally by having a venue for live performances adjoining every eatery. They are meant to be the type of venue that appears in Time Out magazine rather than travel guides. He is keen to emphasise that he has not lost faith in the themed restaurant sector. Planet Hollywood recently announced a 10 per cent staff cut at its head office in Orlando and said pre-tax profits for the fourth quarter of 1997, excluding charges, were US$1.3 million. The company took a US$71 million charge. In the same quarter in 1996, it had a pre-tax income of US$22.3 million. Mr Earl admitted that, during rapid expansion last year, inefficiencies arose at the head office. "Last year, we focused too much just on growth. We opened 32 new restaurants, almost doubling in size. Our total focus was to get them open. "But I dispute that there is a problem with the themed restaurant sector as a whole. We had some bad results and people look to us as the market leader. But the celebrity owners are just as active promoting our restaurants as before." Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone are among a group of investors who own a 16 per cent stake in the company, worth about US$150 million. Mr Earl said: "I am telling the world that 80 per cent of the company is still held by the stars and three other people, including me. "None of the stars have sold any shares. They are still fully committed to Planet Hollywood. And they are using our facilities all the time when they open a new movie." The film stars are expected to stay on board for many years to come. Mr Earl insisted there were no plans to replace the headline stars with younger rivals. New Hollywood talent is, however, being introduced slowly. Planet Hollywood already has links with more than 30 stars. It has been speculated that Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio could be among further additions. Will Smith and Johnny Depp are already on board. The phenomenal success of Planet Hollywood and the Hard Rock Cafe has drawn many competitors into this niche market. However, Mr Earl claims he has not much to fear from them. The Hard Rock Cafe is a mature brand and the Rainforest Cafe, the biggest other chain, has a relatively weak theme. The rest, such as the Harley Davidson Cafe, do not have the same geographical reach. Mr Earl is clearly armed for any battle with rivals. He gets visibly excited by his plans. He looks around in his suite at the Four Seasons Hotel, the most stylish hotel in New York where the sleekest tall blondes wear the slinkiest black dresses. It is almost 9pm and Mr Earl has just come off the phone with his lawyer. "People think this is a glamorous life, but it's not really," he said, only half convincingly. The Planet Hollywood chief executive may no longer get a kick out of meeting stars but he gets fired up by his own ideas. Mr Earl confesses that he "enjoys it still as much as on the first day". The Times