Aquarius Coasters. That was the name when the company started its operations from Elsloo in 2001. Her mission: to create new spaces. An attraction was built at the Railway Museum, two roller coasters were upgraded in Salou, Spain, and a 5D theater was created in Vienna, Austria.

In 2009, there was a comeback under the new name of ‘Kumbach – The Amusement Engineers’. The company, which takes its name from the phonetic pronunciation of the English word for good reason, has a new focus: helping existing spaces make a strong comeback by improving them and making them safer. “It’s important for every company to have a specific focus”, managing director Timo Klaus looks back. “You can try to do all kinds of things at the same time, but it’s best to develop your company’s specialty and characteristics. At that time, we had already done several development projects of existing roller coasters. Our expertise in this grew, so the logical next step was to make it our specialty.

SecurityKumbha’s specialty is very popular. Not every roller coaster is upgraded: some are removed from the park and replaced with new ones. Existing and upgraded locations in the park must meet safety requirements that have become more stringent over time. In addition to upgrading, KumbaK focuses on making existing spaces safer, including simple standard security systems and solutions. “There is always a demand for it, but the number of parties that focus and specialize in it is very limited. That’s one of the reasons we decided to do it,” says Klaus. “If you look at upgrading existing roller coasters, it involves the work of many parties. But if you look at the countries where KumbaK now operates, we can proudly say that we are known worldwide for our expertise.

EngineeringThe countries in which KumbaK operates are indeed widely varied: from Norway and New Zealand to Canada and South Africa, with well-known names such as Wonderland Amusement Park, Sea World and Warner Bros. Among the customers is the movie world. How did KumbaK do it? “A lot of travel, but also a lot of word of mouth,” says Klaus. “If you do good work somewhere, eventually you will be approached by related parties with similar questions. Few parties in the world do this work and continue to focus on improving existing spaces. After all, it is not an easy job. At KumbaK we really work in an engineering field. Every “Also, when you want to upgrade and improve a coaster, you have to redo some of the engineering — especially if a particular structure was built twenty to twenty-five years ago and the new solution has to fit into the old structure. There’s a lot of involvement.”

New lifeKumbaK has been operating in a new building on the Magnesiumstraat in Nederweert since November. Klaus is very clear about plans for the future: keep doing what you’re doing. “We have great customers and I think more parks will be added in the future. Parks that want to bring back old places are welcome at Kumbake.