Zapak to roll out franchisee model from Chandigarh

Mumbai-based Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd, the entertainment arm of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, will soon roll out its franchisee Zapak gameplex outlets in Chandigarh.

Zapak Gameplex Business Head Rajiv Sawhney said, “Zapak would be rolling out its first franchisee gameplex in Chandigarh within the next fortnight.”

Chandigarh already has two Zapak-owned gameplexes but the need for opening a franchisee store was felt after the Chandigarh store received overwhelming response.

Sawhney added that Chandigarh accounts for a considerable number of tech and gaming enthusiasts amongst its denizens and it is proved by the fact that Chandigarh falls in the top 10 cities for Zapak. The city also has over 200,000 gamers registered on the portal till date.

In addition to Chandigarh, the company intends to open franchise stores in Ahmedabad, Chennai and Jaipur.

Zapak has 51 gameplexes running in across 31 cities with franchise-based model in five cities, which includes Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Sawhney added that they were planning to open 500 Zapak stores in across 105 cities by the end of 2009.

Talking about the expansion plans in North, Sawhney said the company has plans to open gameplexes in other cities including Ludhiana, Amritsar, Patiala, Bhatinda, Ropar Jallandhar and Shimla.

Sawhney maintained that Zapak would also launch the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) to complete the value chain.

He added that the company had recently tied up with Chinese game company ‘Shanda’ to acquire license for operating ‘Crazy Kart’ that would be launched by next month. Similarly, the company is in talks with other players to gain licence for other massively multiplayer online games as well.