As part of an international expansion, Kidzania parks expects to build one in Querétaro, as well as in different sites of the United States under the franchise model.
It should be noted that the investment required and its location in Querétaro are still unknown.
During an interview, Xavier López Ancona, CEO of the Company, said, “A new park is under construction in the United States with an investment of approximately $105 million USD”, and stated that “the company is always looking for several partners, and finally one group decided to invest with us, with a good proposal, reason why we have decided to develop our parks moving from a partnership model to franchise scheme”.
Kidzania London (Google)
López pointed out that the firm is also working on smaller projects, such as Doha in Qatar, as well as San José in Costa Rica, and underlined that with these openings, “probably we’d open Kidzania in other small Mexican cities such as Querétaro and Puebla.”
López Ancona participated in the annual marketing symposium, organized by the Anahuac University, where he said that “Our group is composed for international partners and operators, such as in “Innova Entertainment” from Russia, the real estate company Somerset Partners, as well as Artemis”.
In that sense, he explained that Somerset Partners is a firm that is currently preparing a housing development in the Bronx, New York; while Artemis is a company owned by former US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, “who are very respected and admired people in the United States”.
“Just now there are three parks planned in the short term,” CEO announced, adding the first one will be built in the Stonebriar Mall in Dallas, Texas in October 2018. Dallas is the fifth most important market in the United States, he said. This park will be one of the smallest to be built in that country, with an investment of $30 million USD.
In October 2019 Kidzania Chicago will open at the Oakbrook Mall, investing $53 million USD, while in New York they will establish one in the American Dream, the largest mall in the United States, which will cost $40 million USD.
“Among the brands that are looking for us and want to be in our parks are many Americans, such as DHL and Coca Cola, but also Nestle and some national companies like Lala, want to promote Mexico, abroad,” he said.
On the other hand, López mentioned that “Although this year Kidzania does not plan to open any venue, in 2018 they hope to open six parks and four more by 2019, located in Johannesburg in South Africa and Paris in France.
Meanwhile, the international firm is looking for a place to establish the project called Kinesiz, which combines health care with outdoor sports, focusing on a children’s audience, adolescents and adults.
KidZania is a privately held Mexican chain of family entertainment centers currently operating in 24 locations worldwide, allowing children to work in adult jobs and earn currency. KidZania has received more than 31 million visitors since its opening, making it one of the fastest growing global edutainment brands in the world.
Source: http://plazadearmas.com.mx/
