The Straits Times
Nov 17, 2007
Ministry of Sound parent sues Singapore franchise
UK nightlife giant unhappy over local licensee’s running of its nightclub here
By Sujin Thomas
THE London-based parent company of the nightlife giant Ministry of Sound (MoS) has filed suit against its Singapore franchise, alleging a litany of shortfalls in the way it is run – from the kind of music played to its unstable website.
MoS filed suit in Britain’s High Court of Justice on Thursday, seeking damages and a court order to force its Singapore licensee LB Investments to fall in with its guidelines on running the club.
LB Investments is a subsidiary of Singapore mainboard-listed company LifeBrandz.
MoS has alleged, among many things, that LifeBrandz’s focus has been on promoting its stable of other nightclubs in Clarke Quay, such as The Clinic, Fashion Bar and Lunar.
Court papers also said the MoS Singapore website has ‘often been down or inaccessible’.
LB Investments is also said to have breached its contract in the areas of staff uniforms, music policy, door policy and the dismissal of key employees.
The bottom line: It had ‘failed to develop’ the club here ‘in a manner consistent with the reputation of the brand’.
LB Investments signed the contract in April 2005 for 15 years and threw a big bash when the 40,000-sq-ft party venue opened in December 2005.
The lawsuit caps an almost year-long exchange of letters and talks, which MoS said ‘was never taken seriously’.
LifeBrandz chief executive Clement Lee said: ‘We don’t think these breaches are of any substance. They have claimed certain things and I don’t think all of them are true.’
He added that his lawyers from Rajah & Tann would draft a reply to MoS.
Besides the alleged breaches of contract, MoS claims that it is owed $200,000 in royalties which were due in April.
But Mr Lee said he was due to pay only next month: ‘Their claim of our not paying them the money is ridiculous because the contract is not even due.’
MoS International’s president Michael Wilkings, who has visited the club here, told The Straits Times on the line from Dubai: ‘The breaches are material, substantial, continuing and unremedied. We are out of patience.’
He has been overseeing the nightclubs and bars under the MoS brand outside Britain for the past 11/2 years; MoS makes about $300 million worldwide every year and now has another franchise in Egypt.
He said: ‘We have been trying to deal with Clement Lee and his colleagues through most of this year, to try and make him understand MoS Singapore has to be operated at a standard that is acceptable to MoS.’
When asked how MoS was alerted to these breaches, he said that, besides customer feedback, periodic checks are made on the group’s clubs, some without the licensees’ knowledge.
‘We obviously don’t have a lot of confidence in their ability to operate the club,’ he said.
Rumours of an imminent closure have churned among partygoers since last month, when industry sources began speculating about unhappiness in Britain’s MoS about the way the club here was run.
But as far as Mr Lee is concerned, the party goes on, since the franchise has not been revoked.
He said: ‘There just seems to have been a difference in direction as to what is expected and what we’re delivering.’
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