‘Goldfinger’ and the Battle of Hastings Pier
Tested by war, rocked by the Stones, burnt down and rebuilt. Now a famous landmark faces a new challenge – from a tycoon nicknamed Goldfinger in...
HASTINGS Pier has had a long, colourful history since i t was opened to the public on a wet and windy August Bank Holiday Monday in 1872.
In the 145 years since, the pier has burned down twice, acted as a landing site for refugees during the Second World War, and hosted concerts by the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix.
But the charity that rebuilt it after the most recent blaze in 2010 collapsed into administration last month.
And that has set the scene for a bid battle between two high profile businessmen, who are vying with each other to seize control.
Sheikh Abid Gulzar, the super- rich 72- year- old owner of neighbouring Eastbourne Pier, told The Mail on Sunday he is in talks with the administra- tors, Smith and Williamson. Nicknamed ‘Goldfinger’ for his brash style, he faces stiff competition from entrepreneur Luke Johnson, who made his first fortune at Pizza Express.
Gulzar is often spied by locals in the retirement haven of Eastbourne cruising around in his golden Mercedes.
Since buying the town’s pier in 2015, Gulzar has painted its domes and pinnacles in his trademark gold along with lion motifs on nearly 50 lampposts.
He has also banned dog walkers, cyclists, fishing and picnics.
Gulzar told The Mail on Sunday: ‘ To anyone living in Hastings I would say: look at the Eastbourne Pier and see what I have done. I can assure you I will do the same here.’
But it is his rival Luke Johnson who is seen as the frontrunner.
Like Gulzar, Johnson is already a pier owner.
His Eclectic Bar Group bought Brighton Pier for £ 18 million in 2016. Now trading on the stock exchange under the name Brighton Pier Group, Johnson is chairman of the company and has a 24 per cent stake.
Johnson, a former chairman of Channel 4, confirmed he is looking at Hastings Pier, but added: ‘Of the 60 or so piers still standing, very few are good businesses.’
Since taking over Brighton Pier, he has launched a soft play area and regularly changes the machines in its arcades. He also has plans to revamp the pier’s restaurant and pub, Horatio’s.
The charity that runs Hastings Pier collapsed into administration at the end of November after it failed to raise £800,000 for a threeyear plan.
The pier has been done up since its 2010 fire and was recently named the UK’s best new building by the Royal Institute of British Architects. Paul Kelly, head of the British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions, said that piers did in the past offer lucrative business opportunities but that profits are now harder to come by.
‘Piers have had a very difficult last ten or 15 years, and it is really at the moment a case of survival of the fittest,’ he told The Mail on Sunday. He named Brighton and Weston- super- Mare as examples of towns where piers have been well run.
Kelly said the key to success for a pier is to position itself as a ‘destination’ for visitors.
He added: ‘That’s a combination of the old- time pier attractions such as the penny falls, the cranes, the games.
‘And then some of the newer stuff – some have virtual reality, some have ri des on t hem, such as Brighton.
‘ So you create a destination. I don’t think you can rely on just the fact that the pier is there.’
You have to create a destination – it’s no longer enough that the pier is just there