German Deals for DQ’s The Jungle Book

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HYDERABAD: ZDF Enterprises has secured a range of merchandising agreements in Germany for DQ Entertainment’s The Jungle Book.

ZDF Enterprises is DQE’s German merchandising agents on the property. Through the new deals secured by ZDF Enterprises, Egmont has the exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute German-language books in a variety of different formats. The rights are for German-speaking Europe. DQE will receive a royalty on sales through the deal, in addition to an upfront payment as a minimum guaranteed amount.

A non-exclusive deal has been signed with Belltex in Belgium for products in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Belltex has been granted rights to manufacture and distributed bed linen and further similar products based on characters from The Jungle Book character license. DQE signed a previous deal with Belltex for The Jungle Book for France and Benelux.

Tapaas Chakravarti, the chairman and CEO of DQE Group, commented, "Egmont has a great track record and penetration in the German speaking European markets and we believe that we have made the right choice in partnering with Egmont for Jungle Book publishing. This is the beginning of a new and strategic relationship and we look forward to our continued association with them."

On the Belltex agreement, Tapaas added, "This is our second deal with Belltex, this time for Germany, Austria and Switzerland for bed linen. We are sure The Jungle Book franchise will prove to be very successful and beneficial to all our partners."

Oliver Grundel, project manager for merchandising, sales and co-productions at ZDF Enterprises, said, "We are delighted to join forces with Belltex, one of the leaders in the field of home textiles. Belltex’s outstanding market position and professionalism fit ideally into our overarching strategic structure of strong partnerships for optimum sales of a classical, superior property such as The Jungle Book."

He continued, "We are pleased to have found in Egmont a high-caliber partner of long standing for the exploitation of the Jungle Book rights. The Egmont publishing house has been synonymous with successful and beloved children’s and teen books for decades now. Thanks to this agreement with Egmont, we have laid down the groundwork for the transfer of the ‘Jungle Book’ brand’s enormous potential to the publishing sector."

Sylvia Brucker, Director Merchandising for ZDF Enterprises, said: "As an intermediary between a top-of-the-line animation producer from India and an internationally active and highly experienced publishing group, we are happy to be able to promote a project that stands out for its modern, appealing treatment of a timeless classic of children’s literature. We are confident that the market is always ready to give a positive, profitable reception to compelling products on classical topics."

"The books based on the TV series The Jungle Book will play a major role in the portfolio of our children’s book label SchneiderBuch," remarked Volker Busch, the CEO of the Egmont publishing group. "SchneiderBuch traditionally stands for premium, entertaining books for children and youths. Our readers particularly love our sensitively rendered publications based on films and TV series. As a classic of world literature, The Jungle Book is clearly a major new addition to our publishing program. The fact that it is currently being brought to life again in a brand-new CGI-animated TV series is a major asset for SchneiderBuch. This production highlight is exactly the accent we need, as we are in the process of adapting our much-admired, high-quality traditional children’s book program to make it even more appealing to new and future generations of children. We are delighted to be entering into this partnership with ZDF and DQ Entertainment!"