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Merlin Announces plans for first LEGOLAND in Japan
June 30, 2014
LEGOLAND is about to become huge in Japan.
Merlin Entertainments, corporate owner of the LEGOLAND parks, announced it will
open its first LEGOLAND in Japan, the world’s second-biggest market for theme
parks. The new property will be built in the city of Nagoya. It will cost about
185 million pounds ($316 million), according to a Merlin news release. Japan
will become the sixth country with a LEGOLAND park.
Here are more details from the news release:
The park will be opened under Merlin’s ‘operated and leased’ model, with the
infrastructure of the park being funded by a third party. Merlin will directly
invest about 53 million pounds in the park over the next 3 years and lease the
balance of the assets from a company owned by KIRKBI Invest A/S (a subsidiary of
KIRKBI A/S (‘KIRKBI’) a privately held investment and holding company with a 75%
ownership share in the LEGO Group and a 29.9% shareholding in Merlin).
KIRKBI’s investment, which is separate to that of Merlin’s, will be funded
through a combination of equity and external debt provided by Sumitomo Mitsui
Banking Corporation (SMBC). Merlin’s investment is expected to deliver returns
consistent with the Group’s stated pre-tax cash ROIC target of 20%.
“Today’s announcement is another major milestone in the development of the
LEGOLAND brand,” Nick Varney, Merlin Entertainments Chief Executive Officer,
said. “We are delighted to be working closely with the City of Nagoya and with
KIRKBI on the project, both of whom appreciate the potential of the brand in the
second biggest theme park market in the world.
“The park will make a significant contribution to the growth of the Merlin group
from opening in the second quarter of 2017, as well as supporting our continued
geographic diversification. Long term, we continue to believe that there is
significant opportunity for the Legoland brand, with the potential for up to 20
parks across the world and we remain committed to our target of opening a new
park every two to three years.”
Nagoya is ideally located in the center of Japan and is approximately two hours
from Tokyo and one hour from Osaka, with independent market research suggesting
a potential catchment area in excess of 20 million people. The park will be
located on a site close to the port, with excellent road and rail links. The
initial development will focus on the theme park, with potential options
available for further park expansion and the development of on-site, themed
accommodation over future periods.
LEGOLAND Japan will be of similar scale to the recently opened LEGOLAND parks in
Malaysia and Florida and is expected to employ up to 1,000 staff in a variety of
roles.
From:
TheLedger.com
-end of report-
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It’s really amazing how popular LEGO has become in Japan... finally!! It took
over 30 years for that to happen. When LEGO first arrived in 1962 (thru the
Ahashi Corp. as licensee), it was NOT popular, mainly due to distribution
problems... That continued in the 1970s when Fujisho Corp. handled LEGO
distribution until TLG took over in 1978... it wasn’t until the 1990s that LEGO
really started taking off in Japan.
My new collectors guide has a whole chapter on LEGO in Japan, including OLO, a
1970-78 Japanese version of Minitalia, that was sold at a much cheaper price to
get sales improved there.
It took a 1985 DACTA set for Japanese parents to take LEGO seriously... set
1400.
Cheers,
Gary Istok
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