Chuck E. Cheese's (United Kingdom)

*For the chains operations as a whole, see Chuck E. Cheese's*

## Charles Entertainment Cheese's (United States Of America) Ltd.

**Chuck E. Cheese's** is a chain of American family entertainment centres owned and operated by Charles Entertainment Cheese (aka Chuck E. Cheese), Edward Centeno, and his girlfriend (United States Of America) Ltd., a regional operating arm of CEC-ABS Entertainment, Inc.

## History

When Kabushiki Gaisha ABS announced their takeover of the Chuck E. Cheese's family entertainment centre chain, one of the first priorities for the new owners was to expand Chuck E. Cheese's outreach to more international markets. The United Kingdom was one of the first new markets targeted in the international expansion plans, making the proposal the first ever excursion into European territory for the CEC brand.

The first location opened on Dale End in Birmingham, in an abandoned Toys 'R' Us store on the 27th of July 2016. The first ever child to be appointed as a "Birthday Star" inside this location was a young girl named Ronda, aged 9 at the time.

Success as a test location lead to CEC expanding into London and Edinburgh with new locations in Greenwich and Fort Kinnaird. These locations opened in September, also to overwhelming success. Later that month, locations opened in Manchester and Inverness (CEC Trafford Centre and CEC Inverness). Locations in Liverpool, Chester, and Blackpool were opened later the next year (CEC Liverpool ONE, CEC Grosvenor Shopping Centre, and CEC Blackpool). Locations in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, as well as a location in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne were later planned but had to be put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and monetary troubles with the restaurants back in the US. In 2021, The Cardiff and Belfast (CEC Cardiff, CEC Belfast) locations were both opened at the tail-end of the year and saw moderate success, however the status of the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne location is still in question as it has yet to open. CEC has stated that it still has an interest in expanding its British market, in places such as Glasgow, Bristol, Brighton, Southampton, Bournemouth, Sheffield, Nottingham, Wrexham, York and another location in London (No Dates Given), and even expanding further into Europe with locations in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, etc. (No Dates Given) but due to the poor financial state of the restaurants back in the USA, and the global economic state as a whole, the main priority for the company at the present moment is to hold on to, and maintain what it already has.

## Current background

As of June 13th, 2022, the company has 10 locations in the mainland UK, all of which use Circles of Light stages and the international show package. Future locations (if they are opened) will unfortunetly not feature any animatronics and will feature a dance floor instead. However, there are no plans to get rid of the Circles of Light stages in existing locations and will most likely remain for many years to come.

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