Zapak to up cafes to 300 by Jun, breakeven this fiscal

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's gaming and entertainment arm, Zapak, expects to break-even this fiscal and plans to scale-up its gaming centres to 300 by June next, a top company official said.

"We are planning to set up 300 gaming cafes in across 50 cities in India. All the new cafes will be opened through the franchise route," Zapak's CFO Rohit Sharma told PTI.

Zapak, the country's largest online gaming portal, has 75 live cafes and has signed another 120 franchises last month, which would get operationalised in the next few months, Sharma said, without divulging investment details.

The gaming cafes would offer games of all genres like racing, shooting, cricket, counter strike, need for speed, crazy kart, flat out and many more.

"The gameplexes will have the latest technology and infrastructure besides providing world-class content for Indian gamers of all ages," Sharma said.

With the gaming industry growing at a pace of 30-40 per cent, Zapak is also likely to break-even this fiscal, he said.

The company, which is also the largest distributor of gaming CDs, has 4,000 retail outlets. It also sells gaming merchandises like keyboards, consoles, headphones and other gaming accessories.

Recently, Zapak has launched two toys for Christmas--Zubber and Aquasand.

Zubber, a dough, can be used by kids to make various shapes. It comes in different colours and on mixing with a white-coloured activator, hardens into a rubber-like material.

Aquasand is a magic sand that never gets wet and can be used with accompanying moulds to create underwater sculptures using the squeezer bottles filled with Aquasand.

Within the next 2-3 years Zapak aims to expand its user base to 1.5 crore and create the biggest distribution network in the country.