KumbaK (Nederweert) helps roller coasters all over the world with strong co…

KumbaK coasters. This was the name when the company started its activities in Elsloo in 2001. Its mission: to build new attractions. An attraction was built at the Railway Museum, upgrades were made to two roller coasters in Salou, Spain, and a 5D theater was developed in Vienna, Austria.

In 2009, a comeback took place under the new name “KumbaK – The Amusement Engineers”. The company, which takes its name from the phonetic pronunciation of the English term for good reason, has since had a new focus: helping existing attractions come back strong by improving them and making them safer. “It is important that every company has a certain objective,” recalls managing director Timo Klaus. “You can try to do all sorts of things at the same time, but it’s much better to make it a specialty and a feature of your business. At that time, we had already completed a number of improvement projects for existing roller coasters. Our expertise in this area had grown, so the next logical step was to make it our specialty.

SecurityKumbaK specialty seems to be very popular. Not all roller coasters are upgraded: some are removed from the park and replaced with something new. Attractions that remain in the park and are upgraded must meet safety requirements that have become much stricter over time. In addition to improvement, KumbaK is also focused on making existing attractions safer, including through simple standard security systems and solutions. “There will always be a demand for this, but the number of parties that focus on this and specialize in this area is very limited. This is also one of the reasons why we decided to do it,” says Klaus. “If you are planning to improve existing roller coasters, there will probably be several parties whose tasks include this. But if you look at the countries where KumbaK is now active, you can proudly say that we are known worldwide for our expertise.

EngineeringThe countries where KumbaK is active indeed vary widely: from Norway and New Zealand to Canada and South Africa, with well-known names such as Wonderland Amusement Park, Sea World and Warner Bros. Movie World in the customer base. How did KumbaK do this? “A lot of travel, but also a lot of word of mouth,” says Klaus. “If you do a good job somewhere, you will eventually be approached by affiliated parties with similar questions. There are also few parties around the world that do this work and continue to focus on improving existing attractions. It’s not an easy job, after all. At KumbaK, we are truly working on an engineering part. Every time you upgrade a coaster and want to upgrade it, you’ll have to re-engineer it, especially if a particular system was built twenty to twenty-five years ago and the new solution must fit into the old structure. There’s a lot to do in there. »

New lifeSince November, KumbaK has been operating from a new building in Magnesiumstraat in Nederweert. Klaus is very clear about the plans for the future: keep doing what you are doing. “We have great customers and I think many more parks will be added in the future. Parks that want to bring back old attractions are welcome at KumbaK.