The Board of Wonderla Holidays has elevated Arun Chittillappilly, Whole-time Director, back to the position of Managing Director of Wonderla Holidays with immediate effect.
This comes after the announcement of the retirement of Kochuseph Chittilappilly, Promoter and Non-executive Director of Wonderla Holidays, who will now assume the role of “Chairman Emeritus”.
The company also announced that Joint Managing Director George Joseph has also tendered his resignation from day-to-day management due to ‘health restrictions caused by the pandemic and as an abundant precaution’.
Arun resigned as the MD of the company in 2018 when he decided to take a sabbatical.
Arun Chittilappilly has over 15 years of experience as Director at Wonderla. The company said in a statement that he played a significant role in setting up the parks at Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Arun has been actively involved in strategising and conceptualising the Wonderla Parks and Resorts.
To provide smooth transition for Arun’s returning as the managing director, as well as guide and help the company in its digital business transformation and recovery from the pandemic effects, the Board has appointed R. Lakshminarayanan, Non-Executive and Non-Independent Director, as the Non-Executive Vice Chairman. “His experience of over four decades in business strategy, branding insights and team building will be a huge asset for Arun to draw upon,” the company said in a statement.
Wonderla was forced to close down its parks across cities due to the COVID-19 pandemic since March. It a bid to bring in revenue amid closure, it had ventured into food delivery with ‘Wonder Kitchen’ and opened a takeaway and home delivery outlet of Wonder Kitchen at Kengeri, near Benglauru, 16 km away from the Wonderla Amusement Park.It also partnered with Swiggy and Zomato for online ordering and delivery.
“Our parks and resort chains have been affected across the locations due to this turmoil. In these difficult times, we decided to step into the new business venture with the support of our experienced staff,” Arun said in a statement at the time.