PB Lifestyle, Playboy’s sole license holder for all Playboy locations and formats in India, announced its plans to enter the Indian hospitality sector with hotels, clubs and lounges, and cafes and bars over the next ten years. According to Sanjay Gupta, CEO, PB Lifestyle, the contract demands a minimum of 120 locations across India over the next ten years, plans for which currently include eight clubs, 65 cafes and 49 bars. He further added that phase II of their development plans will focus on hotels. The overall investment in their India projects will add up to Rs 200 crores for which the revenue will be generated through internal accruals, he revealed at a press conference in Mumbai.
“Our first property is a Playboy Beach Café in Goa on the Candolim beach stretch and will be launched in the first quarter of 2013. Our second location, slated to be launched shortly after the Goa Cafe, will be Hyderabad. Hotels are so far phase II of our development strategy. However, if a good location is offered to us we will push those plans forward to enter the accommodation market earlier. Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Pune are among the cities we have on our radar for now,” stated Gupta.
Matthew A Nordby, Executive Vice President, Chief Revenue Officer, Playboy, opined that a growing middle class and a large generation Y market makes India an exciting space to penetrate. Speaking about their marketing strategies in India, Gupta stated that PR activities and location-based advertising will be their main focus. “Playboy is a strong brand globally, so our marketing will be limited to social networking sites and location specific advertising in the cities that have our presence,” he concluded.
