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The party isn't over in the City: it's just gone underground. Despite all the talk of a “new age of austerity” and a few big names cancelling their Christmas soirées, companies are still splashing out huge sums on client entertaining, but now more of it is being done on the sly.
One of the beneficiaries of this trend for “stealth entertaining” is Venturi's Table, a cookery class venue in Wandsworth. In the last few months, swathes of workers from Square Mile firms have donned white aprons in its kitchens. Venturi's say this includes banks “whose ongoing corporate hospitality budget would be most seriously judged if made public”.
Owner Anna Venturi says: “Several banks are inviting clients here because it is so private. They'll take around 25 people and serve vintage wines and special champagnes. We have some who come again and again.”
At £135 a head, Venturi's isn't cheap. But it is away from the public glare, a far cry from the now-scrutinised boxes and tents at major sporting events. Last year, corporate entertaining accounted for only 17% of the company's turnover. Now it makes up almost half.
Some may scoff at the idea of bankers swapping lapdancing clubs for ladles and lemon zesters, but one investment banker believes these more intimate and refined events are the future for City entertaining: “The strip clubs were getting boring anyway, those nights were all blurring into one. I reckon the recession has accelerated the move away from the days of cocaine-fuelled excess towards trying to give clients something different, something they are more likely to remember.”
The increase in these smaller, more intimate events is helping the entertaining industry recover from the post-Lehman Brothers decline.
Research group MBD predicts that the sector will shrink by 6% this year. While this is clearly a heavy knock, it is not the Armageddon scenario some suggested it was facing.
“Between January and March, the corporate market was dead, but activity is definitely increasing. We are quite optimistic about Christmas now,” says Johnny Roxburgh, founder of the Admirable Crichton events company. “Entertaining clients has changed though — people don't want to be seen as extravagant. They still demand some degree of quality. They don't want to serve vulgar wines, but they don't want to give people plonk either.”
So what are the other options for the publicity-shy entertainer? “Cocktail-making courses, corporate treasure hunts, poker evenings — these are the most popular for Christmas,” says Tina Benson, managing director of events organiser Team Tactics.
“Everyone is keeping a low profile, but there will always be those who still want the wow factor. We had one firm who wanted to take around 15 top company bosses on MIG fighter planes. But the plan was for them all to be scooted off in a private jet so no one would ever find out.”
Unsurprisingly, fuelled by the furore over Royal Bank of Scotland's bill of up to £300,000 for hospitality at Wimbledon, entertaining at big sports events is being hard hit by the cutbacks. At Wimbledon itself, unofficial estimates put the drop in corporate bookings at between 10% and 20%. Meanwhile, at the British Grand Prix in June, corporate tickets were down by about a fifth. Some of those still going reined in spending. One FTSE 100 company, which despite the recession isn't too short of cash, swapped the helicopters it usually uses to ferry people to the race track for minibuses because the former seemed “too showy”.
Nicola Butler, head of sales at Newbury Racecourse in Berkshire, says: “It's no surprise that customers are buying less champagne — but they are also doing without the extras: the tipsters and tours. They want a stripped-down package.”
Unsurprisingly, when companies do entertain at the big sporting events, the corporate logos are being ditched in favour of anonymity to avoid adverse publicity. Team Tactics' Tina Benson says: “The ostentatious branding is gone. It is all much more covert.”
Companies have also become more picky about who gets an invite. “Mostly it's now just for clients — people who actually bring in the money directly,” says one event organiser. “Small wonder these corporate affairs have become so dull.”
Party planners say the recession has given them another headache too: an excess of guests. “With the lavish events — perhaps because there are fewer of them — far more guests than normal turn up,” says Admirable Crichton's Roxburgh. “We threw parties for two big retailers at Vogue's Fashion Night Out. One was supposed to be for 300 people but 500 showed up. Another we were expecting 250 and 450 guests came.”
So big knees-ups may be in short supply, but it seems the spongers sniffing round for free champagne are still showing up in droves.
