Mexican family edutainment firm Kidzania plans to invest around Rs 300 crore to open three indoor parks in India by 2015. The first centre, spread over 70,000 sq.ft., will be opened in the R City mall in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area by March next. Kidzania, an interactive edutainment chain targeting children between 5-14 age group, currently operates in 10 locations across the world.
Kidzania is a child-sized replica of a real city that has buildings, shops and theatres, as well as battery operated vehicles and pedestrians moving along its streets. Kids get an opportunity to learn and work in an adult environment such as a cola bottling plant, dental clinic, hospital, airport, soap factory and restaurants.
Imagination Edutainment India holds the franchise for Kidzania in India. Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan owns 26 per cent strategic stake in the franchise and the rest is held by Kidzania Pte, Singapore.
‘Its is an unique concept where in kids not only get to enjoy but also get to know and experience various professions thus helping them chose a career early in their life. It will also help boost tourism into the country as we are promoting these centres as major tourist destinations,” said Mr Sanjeev Kumar, Director of Imagination Edutainment India.
The company said that the plan is to open one Kidzania each in Bangalore and NCR region by 2015. The overall aim is to have 6 such centres by 2020 across the country.
“We are in final talks with mall developers like DLF, Unitech and L&T, who are coming up with new projects. We will work on a revenue sharing basis with the malls. The rentals have been quite reasonable for us at Rs 50 per sq ft as compared to Rs 150-200 per sq ft demanded by the malls per month,” Mr Kumar said.
Kidzania is expecting a turnover of over Rs 90-crore from the R City centre in the first year of its operations. The average ticket per child has been priced at Rs 700.
Apart from ticket sales, Kidzania is looking at other revenue streams. The company is also tapping the schools for conducting trips to kidzania on the weekdays and also will generate revenues from its convention halls that can be rented out for conducting CSR events and birthday parties.