Yahoo Finance Kingsmen forms US partnership to roll out branded experience centre
"This is just the beginning of what we plan to do together,” says Robin Turner, managing director of Good Vibrations"
Kingsmen Creatives has formed a strategic partnership with Good Vibrations Holding Co, to roll out branded location-based entertainment in North America, including the continent’s first Nerf Action Xperience, and the world’s first Planet Playskool kids experience.
Under the partnership, Kingsmen will source the real estate and intellectual property, manage licensor relations, and provide production and marketing support.
The US partner, Good Vibrations will be involved in sourcing locations, provide certain funding and operational management of the various permanent facilities and travelling attractions through its BrightPlay and BrightColors operating divisions.
Good Vibrations, described by Kingsmen as an operator of family-oriented destination attractions, is headed by Robin Turner, one of the co-founders of the WonderWorks chain of tourist attractions.
Kingsmen and its partner will debut both the Nerf Xperience centre and Planet Playskool centre by end of the year, at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, United States.
Both indoor entertainment centres will feature multiple activity zones, food & beverage areas, and retail stores.
According to Kingsmen, the Nerf Action Xperience will span over 36,000 square feet of “wholly immersive and true active play activities”. It is seen as a place where colleagues can play together and bond.
The Nerf intellectual property belongs to toy and games giant Hasbro.
Planet Playskool is an indoor children’s creative play centre covering 20,000 sq ft, curated with entertainment brands from Hasbro including Play-Doh, Transformers, PJ Masks, Mousetrap, Spirograph and Tinkertoy.
The partnership and respective roles will continue with the recently announced licensing agreement
between Crayola LLC and BrightColors, LLC to open a minimum of five new Crayola Experience
venues over the next five years, doubling the attraction brand’s presence in the US.
Kingsmen group CEO Andrew Cheng calls this venture an “exciting development” that will help mark the resumption of its drive to deliver “new and unparalleled experiences” around the world, after three years’ halt no thanks to the pandemic.
“It also marks another step in our drive to introduce new and exciting branded attractions to fans around the world. We will continue to explore new opportunities given the strong demand for branded content,” he adds.
“The strategic partnership with Good Vibrations is a perfect complement to our core skill sets,” says
Corey Redmond, senior executive vice president of Kingsmen Xperience, Kingsmen’s US subsidiary.
“This is just the beginning of what we plan to do together, as we grow the business and various projects with Kingsmen Xperience across North America,” says Robin Turner, managing director of Good Vibrations.
Kingsmen, whose business has been hit by the pandemic, has reported it is back profitable for FY2022, with earnings of $4.6 million for the year ended Dec 31, 2022, more than four times higher than earnings of $1.0 million in the FY2021.
Business momentum, according to the company is back. On Feb 21, it announced it won a $36 million contract from the Singapore Tourism Board to help construct the Singapore Pavilion at the upcoming World Expo 2025 at Osaka.
Kingsmen says this contract is expected to contribute positively to the EPS and NTA of the company for the coming FY2023 to FY2026.
Kingsmen shares ended March 6 at 31 cents, unchanged for the day.
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