Ahead of the festival season, Adlabs Imagica theme park announced an exclusive partnership with the world’s best- selling toy brand, Mattel, to offer Hot Wheels.
Under this exclusive partnership, the country’s first theme park will rebrand its flagship rides – Nitro and Happy Wheels – as Hot Wheels Nitro and Hot Wheels Driving School, the company said.
Nitro claims to be the biggest and wildest floorless roller coaster in the country with a 2,800-feet track at a height of 132 feet, while Happy Wheels attempts to inculcate driver’s instinct in young children.
Dhimant Bakshi, joint chief executive of Imagica, told PTI that this partnership aims at bringing about differentiated opportunities for domestic brands by opening their doors to international brands to showcase their innovative experiences.
He said the partnership is based on a revenue-based fee structure, and that they are planning to bring in more Mattel products/brands to Imagica.
The company is already retailing many Mattel brands at the park.
He said with this association, they will begin to offer edutainment to the young kinds at the Hot Wheels Driving School. “So, this will help us move from offering products to offering experience now,” he added.
Lokesh Kataria, marketing head, Mattel India, said the association with Mattel syncs well with them as Imagica’s flagship ride Nitro fits well with Hot Wheel’s brand proposition.
Recently, Adlabs Imagica is all geared up to set up a theme park in new Andhra Pradesh capital Amaravati in the joint venture with local partner Riverbay Resort.
The country’s first and the only theme park designed on the lines of international theme parks such as Universal Studio had Rs 20 crore of its Rs 256 crore revenue coming in from merchandise sales in FY18, taking its total ancillary sales, including food and beverages, at 30 percent of the total income.
The company is also licensing out its character IP to third parties, which is hoped to increase merchandise revenue from 10% to around 15 percent from next year.
On the heels of sewing up, an alliance for Chhota Bheem, the theme park in May had tied up with a 3D technology firm to launch a Bollywood park called the House of Stars in its bid to boost both footfalls and merchandise revenue. Adlabs has reported a 6 percent rise in pretax profit at Rs 34.14 crore in June quarter, helped by a 2 percent rise in footfalls.
Founded in 1945, Mattel Toys is a leading global children’s entertainment firm specializing in design and production of quality toys and consumer products which include Barbie, Hot Wheels, American Girl, Fisher-Price, Thomas & Friends and Mega among others which are sold in over 150 countries.
It also offers film and television content, gaming, music, and live events. Imagica offers a gamut of entertainment experiences under one roof through its theme park, a Mykonos themed water park and the country’s largest snow park.
(With inputs from PTI)
