Former Virgin Retail chief Simon Douglas joins Luminar

Nightclub and entertainment group Luminar has appointed former Virgin Retail managing director and Zavvi CEO Simon Douglas as its new CEO.

Oceana

Douglas will replace Stephen Thomas, who retires from the company in July but steps down from the Board at the end of this month.

Thomas founded the Company and has recently overseen a re-focusing of the business into a core of branded venues, offering live music and dance-led, late night entertainment. Brands include Oceana, Liquid and The Jamhouse.

Douglas led the MBO of Zavvi following the rebrand from Virgin Megastore. The company later went into administration and was wound up in February last year.But the brand was resurrected as an online only company owned by The Hut Group.

Alan Jackson, Luminar’s chairman, says: “I am delighted to welcome Simon to Luminar. He has grown consumer businesses in tough markets and I have no doubt that under his leadership, as trading conditions improve, Luminar is well positioned to leverage its strengths into shareholder value.”

In an interim trading statement Luminar said that the general economic conditions, and in particular youth unemployment, continue to have a significant impact on core customers.

It added that the bad weather of recent weeks had also had an effect on footfall. These factors mean the Group now expects profit before tax for the year to 25 February 2010 to be below market expectations. Full year results for Luminar are expected on 18 May.