The suc­cess of the lo­cal op­er­a­tors of the Chuck E. Cheese fran­chise, has en­cour­aged the glob­al fam­i­ly en­ter­tain­ment brand to ex­pand in­to Guyana and Suri­name.

In a re­lease yes­ter­day, the fran­chise an­nounced in­ten­tions to dri­ve in­ter­na­tion­al ex­pan­sion and has suc­cess­ful­ly signed de­vel­op­ment agree­ments in three new coun­tries across South Amer­i­ca and in the Mid­dle East.

“In­vestors and en­tre­pre­neurs con­tin­ue to rec­og­nize Chuck E. Cheese as a high ROI op­por­tu­ni­ty with­in their lo­cal mar­kets,” said Arun Barnes, COO & SVP of in­ter­na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment for CEC En­ter­tain­ment in the re­lease. “With a unique busi­ness mod­el that is un­matched in the Fam­i­ly En­ter­tain­ment Cen­ter (FEC) land­scape, we are the brand that can have an im­me­di­ate im­pact in al­most any coun­try around the globe, while pro­vid­ing a re­li­able cash flow for fran­chise part­ners who have a pas­sion for fam­i­ly en­ter­tain­ment,” Barnes added.

The re­lease stat­ed, “One of the most ef­fec­tive av­enues of growth is through ex­ist­ing fran­chisees who see suc­cess in their own re­gions, such as fran­chise part­ner Joan­na Ros­tant of Yay! En­ter­tain­ment in Trinidad & To­ba­go who has signed to ex­pand the brand through sub fran­chis­ing in­to Guyana and Suri­name.”

The fran­chise con­firmed the first site at Suri­name is un­der con­struc­tion and sched­uled to open in the first half of 2022.

Ros­tant said, “We are thrilled to part­ner through a sub fran­chise arrange­ment with Sas­ja Lie Pauw Sam and his team at Blue Fal­con N.V. to bring the joy of Chuck E. Cheese to fam­i­lies in Suri­name. We note with con­fi­dence Suri­name’s re­cent dis­cov­ery of sub­stan­tial vol­umes of hy­dro­car­bons, and in keep­ing with the re­cent IMF fore­casts, be­lieve that Suri­name will ex­pe­ri­ence strong pos­i­tive eco­nom­ic growth in the next cou­ple of years. For these and oth­er so­cio-eco­nom­ic rea­sons, we be­lieve that the world’s lead­ing fam­i­ly en­ter­tain­ment brand will be thor­ough­ly en­joyed by chil­dren and fam­i­lies in Suri­name.”

Barnes added, “It makes sense for Caribbean mar­kets, and we are thrilled that Joan­na’s strong op­er­at­ing mod­el has po­si­tioned her com­pa­ny well to achieve and lead this ex­cit­ing ex­pan­sion. We look for­ward to her suc­cess in Suri­name, and lat­er in Guyana,”

The ex­pan­sion in­to these mar­ket is part of the rapid on­go­ing in­ter­na­tion­al ex­pan­sion of the brand al­ready an­nounced in new re­gions like Egypt, Mo­roc­co, Ro­ma­nia and Kuwait, and sets Chuck E. Cheese on track to have over 100 in­ter­na­tion­al lo­ca­tions by 2022.

In ad­di­tion to the Caribbean, Chuck E. Cheese has al­so part­nered with new fran­chise part­ners, Bench­mark Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Ser­vices, to ex­pand new lo­ca­tions across Qatar through­out the next few years.

“Work­ing with the CEC In­ter­na­tion­al team is a plea­sure,” said Yan­ni Jouaneh, fran­chise own­er and CEO of Bench­mark Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Ser­vices. “They have great sys­tems and process­es to sup­port in­ter­na­tion­al fran­chis­ing, and our busi­ness fea­si­bil­i­ty sur­vey of the brand show­cased a unique op­por­tu­ni­ty to bring in a high­ly prof­itable brand in­to Qatar’s ex­cit­ing mar­ket land­scape. There is no oth­er brand that of­fers a great mix of games, food, en­ter­tain­ment and birth­day par­ties. Qatari fam­i­lies with kids will soon ex­pe­ri­ence the joy of Chuck E. Cheese near­er to their home.”