Constant reinvention key to Timezone’s success as national arcade chain

By Edg Adrian A. Eva, Reporter

TIMEZONE PHILIPPINES is urging smaller businesses to keep experimenting and pushing forward — a message rooted in its own 26-year history of learning, missteps and steady reinvention.

“When we started this business in 1998, we had to learn everything from scratch,” Rafael Ramon “Raffy” L. Prats, Jr., president and general manager at Timezone Philippines, told BusinessWorld at the relaunch of its flagship venue in Makati City last week. “You really have to persevere.”

The company’s story mirrors the advice. Its first venue in Ayala Center Cebu opened at a time when the amusement arcade market was far smaller and largely dominated by traditional coin-operated machines.

Mr. Prats said the team built the business one step at a time, often figuring things out through trial, error and constant travel overseas to study emerging attractions.

That persistence laid the groundwork for what has become one of the country’s biggest family entertainment chains, now with 51 full-sized venues and more than 50 smaller locations nationwide.

Timezone’s ability to evolve — rather than simply expand — has been central to that growth. The company’s latest push centers on multi-attraction formats designed to keep pace with changing consumer behavior and rising demand for social, group-oriented activities.

Timezone Philippines, registered as Leisure and Allied Industries Philippines, Inc. is a joint venture of Ayala Land, Inc. and The Entertainment and Education Group, an Asia-Pacific entertainment and edutainment operator.

The newly relaunched Glorietta 4 venue reflects this shift. It features social bowling lanes, virtual-reality games and large karaoke rooms that can fit groups of as many as 12 people. Six more venues set to open next year will follow the same model, and Mr. Prats said Timezone plans to widen its mix of social attractions over the next five years.

“We’ll have to keep on identifying what other attractions and components we can bring into the business,” he said, noting that the company has consistently relied on experimentation to refresh its portfolio.

Timezone spent much of this year consolidating operations and upgrading older sites to the multi-attraction format. Mr. Prats expects that decision to pay off, projecting double-digit revenue growth in 2026 as the refurbished sites ramp up.

He said the company’s trajectory shows that progress often comes from sustained effort rather than quick wins — a point he hopes smaller businesses will take to heart.