Playcenter’s return is a dream, says owner of Cacau Show – 02/20/2024 – Market

Whenever he hears the question if everything is ok, Alexandre Costa, 53, founder and CEO of Cacau Show responds: “Everything is sweet”. That is until Monday (19).

“Now it has changed. I will say that everything is sweet and fun”, he told Sheet.

For an undisclosed amount, he announced this Tuesday (20) the purchase of the Playcenter Group, an entertainment complex and amusement park that has two business models: Playlands and Playcenter Family. Both explore the concept of indoor leisure, especially in shopping centers.

But the company’s brand is always associated with Playcenter, a park opened in 1973 and which occupied 85 thousand square meters of space on the Tietê waterfront, in São Paulo.

Due to financial problems, the complex, which was the largest in Latin America, closed on July 29, 2012.

“It is the park with the greatest emotional memory in the country. I believe that the [compra da Cacau Show] It’s a watershed moment and a great entertainment group is being born”, says Vanessa Costa, president of Adibra (Association of Amusement Park Companies in Brazil).

Part of the land that was the original amusement park is unoccupied, but sections have been transformed into a school, gas station and residential building.

As soon as the negotiation announcement was made, the main question became: will Playcenter return?

According to Alexandre Costa, this is the idea, not necessarily in the near future. It is a wish, especially because the negotiation still needs to be approved by Cade (Administrative Council for Economic Defense).

“We dream of having a large outdoor park. Part of the process of having bought a 50-year-old company is that the employees who have been there for 20, 30 years will help us think about the project. We need to analyze the economic viability. We intends to have the Playcenter again. But that’s part of the dream plan. For now, it’s about keeping our feet on the ground”, says the founder of Cacau Show.

With revenues of more than R$100 million, the Playcenter Group was still controlled by its founder Marcelo Gutglas, 82. At the sale announcement ceremony, he said he was at peace having seen “the sparkle in the eyes” of the new owner.

It is not Cacau Show’s first investment in the industry. The company has a hotel in Campos do Jordão and in the coming months will open another, in Águas de Lindoia (the two cities in the interior of São Paulo).

It also set up an amusement park in the 3,000 square meter mega store of its factory, in Itapevi (in the metropolitan region of the capital).

The company’s immediate plans are to create a sensorial relationship, in the Playcenter Group’s current stores, between fun and chocolate.

“We’re going to take care of the food and beverage side, put more products in stores, work with intellectual properties and wrap some attractions. The same cocoa that makes chocolate makes the cocoa butter used in massages in our hotels. It’s the same cocoa we use we make caipirinhas. Cocoa will be a theme [dos parques de diversões]”, adds the CEO.

The conversations began last year, when he was in Orlando, in the United States, for an international entertainment fair. Vanessa Costa thought she should introduce him to Marcelo Gutglas.

The two got along well, but there was no open negotiation because, as far as anyone knew, the Playcenter Group was not for sale.

They had lunch together a few times until Gutglas said he was getting old and had no heirs interested in taking over the company. Would Costa be interested in buying it?

“If it’s for a fair price, I’ll buy it,” said the owner of Cacau Show.

“If it’s for a fair price, I’ll sell it”, confirmed the former Playcenter owner.

“It’s a group that would normally look to an investment bank to look for a buyer. It was a deal made between two men. He gave me a piece of jewelry and I will take care of it with care,” said Costa.

Born in the Casa Verde neighborhood, north of the capital, Alexandre Costa grew up just a few kilometers from the original Playcenter. Passing along the Tietê waterfront, next to the park, was routine. Getting money to go in and have fun on the rides, not so much.

“This is a very special day for me. When I was growing up, my parents saved money so that I could go to the Playcenter once a year.”

Therefore, before leaving the office of the largest fine chocolate chain in the world, with around 4,200 stores in the country and more than 22,000 employees, he called home and ordered a special dish for dinner: egg and balls.

“Do you know what it is? You snap [frita] eggs, add peas and close [cobre] the pan. Let it fry in the sauce. This is egg and ball. It was what I ate at the age when my parents saved money for me to go to the Playcenter.”