Tim Cocks and David Dolan
WITH its rows of wooden shacks selling street food and cut-price haircuts, Lagos island’s McCarthy Street is not the kind of place you would think to raise a glass of bubbly. But turn into a side door on one of its ramshackle buildings, and there is a small bar stocking Moët & Chandon champagne, along with Hennessy brandy, Johnnie Walker whisky and Bailey’s liqueur.
The regulars at the Corner Lounge, which on a recent night included a bar worker and a fitness instructor, do not have money to burn like Nigeria’s oil-rich elite, but they might still splash out now and then on a $110 (R1 090) bottle of champagne, says manager Peter Ode.
“When you do champagne or expensive brandy it shows you are a big deal,” says 27-year-old Ode, flanked by backlit bottles of expensive bubbly and spirits lined along mirrored shelves.
“You deserve more attention than the guys who buy beer.”
Not so long ago, for luxury goods retailers the African market boiled down to a tiny elite, in some cases just a corrupt ruling clique.
Not any more. Although millions of Africans remain stuck in crushing poverty, disposable incomes are on the up.
As economies boom, the elite circles are widening and a growing middle class is aspiring to finer things.
Luxury firms like LVMH, which makes Moët and Hennessy luxury drinks as well as Louis Vuitton handbags, are targeting the burgeoning ranks of what South African retailers call “black diamonds”, or affluent African professionals.
Africa’s population of “high net worth individuals” grew at 4 percent in 2010 to 2011, according to a report on global wealth by consultancy Capgemini.
Unlike diamond watches or flashy cars, still out of reach to all but a few, luxury alcohol is a display of prosperity even middle-income earners can afford from time to time, giving retailers access to a larger chunk of the African pyramid.
But as in most regions, Africa’s rich remain the prime target. – Reuters