Discos? I'd rather stay at home

STEVE Thomas is in full flow, firing off a list of his company's host of pub, club and bar brands. Suddenly he stops and barks at me: 'Do you know the difference between a nightclub and a discotheque?'

It's a question that should be met with a blank look and a muttered: 'Well, they're the same aren't they? Except that discotheques belong in the Seventies.' No, that is not the correct answer - and Thomas, 48, should know. He is chief executive of Britain's biggest chain of nightclubs, Luminar, which at the moment is worth £622m. After 30 years, what Thomas doesn't know about theme bars, discos and late-night clubbing could be written on the back of a cloakroom ticket.

And all that experience is paying off, because he has just released another set of solid profit figures. 'Business is surprisingly strong,' he says. 'I think people really want to go out and be entertained.'

Thomas rattles through Luminar's multi-brand strategy: 'Orange House is set up between the Litten Tree and Wetherspoons, right? 'The' is the new, improved version of All Bar One, then we've got the Jam House, which is a blues jazz concept. Life is a trendy clubby sort of bar and Jumpin' Jaks is a Deep South concept.

'With our Chicago Rock Cafes you've got the three ds - drinking, dancing and dining. And then there's our nightclub, Liquid. It has computer graphics so you can change the club into a beach, for example. It's all about market segmentation - trying to work out what people want, where they want it and how they want it. You'll always grow a business when you're matching likeminded people with what they want.'

Segmentation is a Thomas buzzword - his cue to launch into Luminar's master plan: 'We want to own the flow of the High Street. People go to a bar and then they either hit an entertainment bar or a dancer, and then they'll go on to a kebab shop.

'We can take data from the beginning of the evening to the end so we know what they want, and can then fine-tune our products or pass on the information to our suppliers.' This data comes from Luminar's loyalty cards. People signing up answer questions about their drinking habits and receive discounts.

Advertising screens linked to Luminar's payments system steer customers from low-margin to high-margin products. But most cunning of all is its text-messaging system, which means specific groups - for example, Orange Tree drinkers in Ipswich - can be targeted and offered discounts if they move on to one of Luminar's club nights, thus coaxing them from crowded locations to quieter places.

For Thomas, the ideal customer would have a few beers in the Orange House before heading to The to eat, then on to Jumpin' Jaks for an hour before ending up at one of his nightclubs.

'That way you get them four times in one evening - and also two admission charges,' he says.

To complete the ideal evening, shouldn't Thomas get into the kebab market? 'I don't think I could see myself with that,' he says. Luminar has more than a million 18 to 25-year-olds on its database, but Thomas is looking to attract them even younger.

Uk Club Culture is aimed at 14 to 17-year-olds and holds non-alcoholic club nights backed by the police and sponsors such as Irn Bru. Thomas admits: 'We're gathering information on them, too, so when they turn 18 we can phone and say 'You're legal'.'

Thomas began his career at Top Rank in Cardiff before setting up his own clubs in Cambridge and Luton. He started Luminar in 1987. For him, the club life is strictly business. But ask about his favourite night out, and Cardiff-born Thomas is just a romantic at heart. 'My best night out is anywhere with my wife,' he says. 'I love being with her and I don't care where I am.'

He proposed less than four weeks after meeting Vynette 27 years ago. 'I just knew,' he says. 'It was like being hit.'

Luminar has almost completed the integration of Northern Leisure, bought last summer for £400m. Thomas says: 'The important thing now is to decide where we go next. I think we know where.' But he adds: 'Are we doing any big deals at the moment? No.' But he doesn't rule out a second bite at First Leisure.

Having moved into a Northamptonshire village, local pubs are a current interest. 'The only way they will survive is if they reflect their community,' Thomas says. 'Breweries don't understand. They go in and ' conceptualise' them, so you end up with plastic people, plastic food and plastic cats and dogs.'

But he has a convincing argument against hanging around the local: 'If you're 18 to 22, it's the worse thing you can do. If you want to party, the Dog and Duck is not the place. And if you're on the tug, you're not going to do that in your local pub because you've tried them all - it's a used market.'

Meanwhile, Thomas has no plans to fade away into the sunset. 'I know I'm old and sad, but I also know the business - and it'll be a sadder place without me.'

Incidentally, nightclubs have seats and discotheques don't.