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A self-made businessman, Yonatan Hambissa,
33, has been running night club businesses
over the past 10 years and owns Yoha
International Trading Plc. He made plans to
organise a big concert by inviting famous
Ethiopian artists as well as those from
outside the country.
With the coming of a big holiday like the
Ethiopian Millennium, his hope to capitalise
on the eventful occasion is large. For
Yonatan, who also owns Deep Club and Panda
Bar, holiday seasons and businesses
particularly in the entertainment industry
perfectly match each other.
However, his tours of Europe and the North
America doomed his hope to make a killing
out of the opportune time in which seasonal
clients such as the Diasporas would bring
with themselves.
Discouraged by the reluctance of those whom
he visited in his overseas trip recently as
far as their schedules to come for the
Millennium goes, Yonatan switched to rely on
the local customers.
He, however, remains determined to stay on
course by down-sizing the profile of the
concert in terms of expenditure and has
already invited local celebrities like Jonny
Ragga, Nathy, DJ Phastu and DJ Wish to
perform at the Tropical Garden off Africa
Avenue on September 9, 2007.
His optimism revived of late by the growing
number of customers popping up at his
business places and stay late into the night
wining and dancing. The growing tendency of
drinking over the past few weeks meant his
nigh club and the pub started to enjoy a
10pc increment in the number of customers.
Since majority of his customers are local
residents, Yonatan considers himself lucky.
His motivation to charge his customers
entrance fees ranging from 30 Br in his pub
to 100 Br at the night club has sprung up
from the consistency of returns in the eve
of the festivity.
Bars and restaurants in the metropolis have
been observed to change in style, as more
and more bars and cafeterias have turned
into night clubs. Refurbishing the facades
and the interior parts of bars in places
such as 22-mazoria reflects the holiday
boom.
Partying from dusk to dawn became
phenomenally common in the various parts of
Addis Abeba, no matter the size of the
premises so long as they are furnished with
some forms of notable interior decors, a
frequent customer in one of the bars turned
night club whispered.
Thanks to the collective mood of the people
in Addis Abeba owing to the mega holiday of
the Millennium, the scales with which
customers choose to spend on entertainment
has increased, said a waitress who pockets
more tips each night she stays serving at a
bar in chechenia along 22-mazoria.
For Zelalem Asmare, owner of Veronica Bar in
22-mazoria, the festive season has brought
more harm than good in terms of business
return. Each day the number of customers
goes down, he expressed in frustration.
"I came to understand too late that changing
even the wall colour of the bar would
attract the eyes of customers who could end
up spending more time drinking," Zelalme
reluctantly admits.
However, the timing of the holiday with
other annual occurrences may dampen the
Millennium effect.
"The fact that the holiday coincides with
school entry in Ethiopia, most parents spend
their time at home rather than going to bars
and use their money to cover important
expenses such as school fees for their
children," Zelalem said. "Not to speak of
stocking alimonies for the New Year
holiday."
Zelalem admits that he was of the opinion at
the initial point that the Millennium hoopla
would bring temporary fortune for people
like him engaged in bar businesses, given
the widespread media promotional campaign.
"The reality on the ground tells more than
words could do," he said. Ironically, even
if his business activity has frozen by day
at the height of the holiday, he could sill
complain about the short supply of St.
George beer.
"As the demand on St. George hit its peak,
we sell 30 crates a day of beer; 29 of which
are St. George," Zelalem recalled his heyday
during which time he was securing better
returns than now.
A businesswoman in the Olympia area, Tsige
Hailu, who owns Bethy Mini Mart, narrates
her frustration caused by the problem in the
supply of the brand of beer whose popularity
among customers has increased over the
recent past.
"Making money in high season must have
driven the demand of many retailers very
high," Tsige said.
According to Tsige, the Millennium would
have been profitable had supply been able to
quench the increase in demand.
"Unfortunately, due to the limit of supply
starting all the way from the production
line to the distributors' end, I could not
stock anything more than 20 crates of St.
George," Tsige said, adding she suspects the
factory takes the beer to regional towns but
fails to meet demand in the capital.
"Every holiday has its own challenge in
terms of demand and supply gap," said
Gebresslassie Sifer, regional sales manager
at the St. George Brewery, Addis Abeba
Corporate office. "However, the latest
shortage originated from our effort to
distribute our beer to clients of lower
incomes in regional towns."
Gebreselassie confirmed that the
distribution chains are designed in a way
there would be proportionality in reaching
customers with the product they demand at
all levels of incomes in all over the
country.
"Expansion projects have not come to
fruition and the installation of four more
tankers in the past year has not
materialised," Gebreselassie said, lauding
successful marketing campaigns that have
increased demand. "When installation is
completed our production would increase by
37,000 hectolitres to make total production
137,000 hectolitres per month."
Addis Abeba drinking culture is also heavily
influenced by the commercial sex workers
seen inside many clubs and bars. According
to an owner of a bar near 22-mazoria, there
is no doubt that customers would decrease
without the prevalent young females.
"I treat these girls like my own daughters
to make sure they do not disappear, for most
of my customers do not see a holiday without
passing time with them," she confessed.
"Most of the girls making a living as
prostitutes assist extended families with
the money they saved," she said.
"Although hanging here out in the cold
wearing micro-miniskirt has its own painful
experience, all the pain would go with the
arrival of one generous client," Sircalem
Shigute (name has been changed), a
commercial sex worker, who looks after her
families here in Addis Abeba and at a
country home and is hopeful about increased
business for the Millennium.
Happy, as he appears to be, Yonatan seems to
do away with his worries as he sees his
local customers flocking to his night clubs
growing each day. When the night life in
Addis Abeba increasingly becomes busy to
make money, one would gain every thing to be
part of what is going on during this time of
the day in the Millennium.
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