Robbie Williams and Sir Richard Branson are fans and Sir Clive Sinclair is a regular. Whereas clubs such as Stringfellows have been unable to move out of London, Spearmint has six clubs already, to add to its 31 back in the US. It's cloying, but the approach seems to work. The sentence 'We don't get many guys as good looking as you in the club' is also a regular fixture. They are taught to remember a name and to use it three times within the first minute. We just want to feel we're special to a woman.'Īs such the dancers - who number 200-plus on the busiest days in Gray's biggest clubs - are trained to flatter. If you do the maths, £20 for a three-minute dance has nothing to do with sexuality. Such attention to detail, Gray says, gives the punters a feeling of self affirmation. We don't want people to feel embarrassed. 'We believe a dance should be for the individual consumer. Whereas other clubs will offer table dancing, Spearmint has its own private booths. The Spearmint secret, apparently, is to give the punter a feeling they are unique. 'Before entering one of his restaurants, Ray used to go around the car park and pick up the litter,' Gray says reverently. Several times he cites the example of Ray Kroc, the burger chain's ruthless founder. We already have fast food, but the future, according to Gray, is fast fantasy. Forget Playboy, Gray's business model is McDonald's. Already an institution in the City, where the biggest banks spend lavish amounts entertaining clients, Spearmint Rhino has massive ambitions for the UK, then Europe, then the world. He is the founder of the ridiculously named, but hugely popular, Spearmint Rhino chain of clubs. But then Gray, perma-tanned and terrier-like, with a big grin and the swaggering confidence of someone who is frighteningly rich, is very, very unusual. If every chief executive were so candid, the world of business would be a much more colourful place. The 44-year-old former law student and his ex-Penthouse pet wife, are living proof of the cliché that sex sells. What Gray does exactly is run the world's biggest chain of table dancing clubs.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |