Expansion plan by Japanese leisure company

Nov 24 2009 by Chris Knox, The Journal

THE leisure giant behind the region's newest entertainment complex expects to add another 30 jobs to its 70-strong team as part of its plans to expand into the corporate hospitality market.

The management of Japanese company Namco Funscape formally opened their flagship UK site yesterday at the Gateshead Metrocentre.

The complex, which takes up 38,000 sq m of the redeveloped Metrocentre Qube within the Yellow Quadrant, boasts 18 ten-pin bowling lanes, a dodgem car track, pool tables, three conference rooms, a coffee shop, children's soft play area.

There will also be a a vast selection of arcade games.

Namco's UK management team are now planning to lease the site out to companies in the North East who are looking for something a little different when it comes to hosting their corporate hospitality and believe it will prove the perfect antidote to the gloom of the recession.

The company invested £4m in the site, which is the firm's 13th in the UK and is the second biggest in the UK after a centre in Tamworth, Staffordshire, which also includes a nightclub.

Namco has been in talks with the Metrocentre for years and said that the North East would prove to be one of its key areas of growth over the coming years.

Its Japanese bosses were at the launch and global department general manager Hitoshi Yoshida, company president Masahiro Tachibana and company director Shuhei Ino tried out some of the games.

Namco launched in Japan in and made a name for itself developing video games in the 1980s, including the iconic Pac Man. More recently it has kept the masses entertained with its Tekken fighting game series and merged with toy maker Bandai in 2005 to become Namco Bandai Holdings, and the third largest video game business in Japan.

Philip Millward, operations director, Namco Operations Europe, said: "The opening of the complex in Gateshead is a big step for the Namco brand in the UK as we very much see it as our flagship site.

"We are always investing in new games and entertainment to keep our sites up to date and will also be looking to create extra jobs to help us as we expand into the corporate hospitality market here in the North East.”

"We see the North East of England as integral to our plans. It has always been considered as a location where people like to go out and have fun, no matter what shape the economy is in."

The entertainment complex isn't the only development at the Metrocentre, where a 12-screen Imax due to open next month.

The developments replace MetroLand, which closed its doors for the last time in April last year after more than 20 years in the shopping complex and saw 40 workers made redundant.

However, the Qube has already created almost double that with new restaurants and cafes opening in the £45m expansion.