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Park People
Q Lines
Steve Van den Kerkhof
Plopsa is the theme park Why did Studio 100 decide to enter the What is your strategy for selecting park sites?
division of Studio 100, the theme park business? We looked at many different sites in Belgium before we
largest provider of family We wanted to give our characters an eternal life. It opened Plopsaland De Panne in 2000. We even thought
entertainment in the starts with television, then we make some books, about building a whole new park from zero, but it’s
Benelux. Its TV shows target some DVDs, some movies, but most of the time after difficult because to create a new park you have to invest
children up to the age of 12 two or three years it’s dead. If we do a theme park, in a lot of things you never see, in foundations, in
and are screened on a the characters live on. walkways, these kinds of things. So we took over an old
variety of channels in At the beginning, that was the only reason for park (Meli Park) in De Panne because there was already
Belgium, the Netherlands doing a park, but now I think it is important to make a start and they needed some investors. In Hasselt we
and beyond. Characters from a profit too. The parks have become an important did it from scratch, and opened in 2005.
these shows can be found business segment in Studio 100, around 40% of At Plopsa Coo, it was an existing park (Télécoo) that
inside three Belgian parks – turnover. went almost out of business, so we took it over in 2006.
Plopsaland De Panne, Plopsa In the Netherlands it will be a completely new park,
Coo near Liége and Plopsa What are some of the characters we will similar to Hasselt, called Plopsa Indoor Coevorden.
Indoor at Hasselt, as well as find in your parks? We never thought about the competition when we
two standalone Plopsa The word “Plopsa” comes from our characters chose these places. The only thing I wanted for the
stores. Following Studio Kabouter Plop and Samson and Gert. Other popular park in the Netherlands was for it to be far enough
100’s acquisition last year of characters include Bumba, Piet Piraat and Wizzy & away from the other Plopsa parks. Other attractions in
the EM Entertainment Woppy. One of our latest successes is Het Huis the area include Walibi, Slagharen and the zoo of
catalogue, there are now Anubis, it was a huge success with older kids, so we Emmen, but people don’t choose between Slagharen
plans to build attractions in did a coaster at Plopsaland De Panne called Anubis and us. They decide whether they want to go to
Germany and potentially The Ride. Plopsa or not, and then they decide between the
many more countries. As the Last year we bought the EM Entertainment Netherlands and Belgium.
company prepares to open catalogue from Germany, which gives us the rights to
its first Plopsa-branded Maya the Bee, Vicky the Viking, Heidi, Lassie and How has the Plopsa brand helped the parks?
outlet in the Netherlands, many more. With these extra characters we will do When we started with the park in De Panne it had
Owen Ralph catches up some remakes and go abroad with Studio 100 and 350,000 visitors. Today, 10 years later, we have more
with Plopsaland general also the parks. Our latest plan is to do three indoor than one million. Télécoo when we took it over was
manager Steve Van den theme parks in Germany related to Vicky the Viking, 150,000 and this year, after three years, we have
Kerkhof. Maya the Bee and Heidi etc. 450,000, so it works.
Plopsa Indoor Hasselt. Most of the attractions,
including the pirate boat and Zierer tower ride, will be
repeated at Plopsa Indoor Coevorden
Steve Van den Kerkhof
30
FEBRUARY 2010
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