Go karts, laser tag and arcade games will be returning to Shepparton, Australia, as family entertainment centre Fun Planet reopens this week under new management.
After being closed for more than 12 months, the 5,000 square metre centre has been revamped since shutting its doors at the start of 2020, reopening to the public on Friday, May 14.
Director Jason Wallace has joined Kyabram businessman Chris Motton and amusement industry veteran Zak Athanasiadis to bring Fun Planet back to life.
The state-of-the-art Sodi go karts, a “3 story” laser tag arena and more than 130 arcade games all return as the centre gears up for a grand reopening ahead of the July school holidays. The 12-metre-high rock climbing wall and mini golf will open in time for the June school holidays, with the wall needing safety accreditation before it can be put back into use, while the mini golf space will be renovated and put back into use around the same time.
Fun Planet will be operating the RaceFacer go-kart timing system which has integrated app, marketing and many other great features.
Jason Wallace has worked for a wide range of entertainment companies, including Timezone, Laserforce and Fun Lab, which operates Holey Moley & Strike bowling among other brands. He also established his own consulting firm LBEPartners which provides contract services to others in the out of home entertainment industry.
Zak Athanasiadis is Australia’s largest supplier of amusement games and has been in the industry for three decades. As well as being a distributor, his own arcade operation, Totally Game, operates in two locations in Melbourne.
About 25 people will be employed at the centre, including a mix of full-time and casual workers. Fun Planet will operate using the Intercard system which has proven at other locations to be very reliable and robust. Customers in Shepparton will experience for the first time that instead of inserting coins players would top up cards which kept track of money spent and how many tickets they’d won in order to cash in.
Picture Credit – The Shepparton News