With festive season already knocking the doors, Mumbai-based theme park Adlabs Imagica has inked pact with Mattel Toys for the latter's sub-brand 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. Dhimant Bakshi, Jt. CEO from Adlabs Imagica said, “India currently stands at a nascent stage as compared to its international counterparts in the theme and amusement park industry. Hence, it is imperative for Imagica- India’s first theme park, to bring about differentiated opportunities for Indian brands, and open doors for international brands to showcase their innovative and immersive experiences for Indian consumers". 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. 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, has 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 per cent to around 15 percent from next year. And the company also marked its foray at the India Licensing Expo 2018 as a licensor. 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.
