City round-up: Immotion; Flowtech Fluidpower
Salford-based virtual reality entertainment group Immotion has agreed to install a new 16-seat theatre-style installation at Sea Life Orlando, Florida, USA.
The new 16-seat theatre will be installed over the coming weeks and the contract is for an initial period of three years.
Sea Life Orlando will be the group’s third larger theatre-style installation, following the successful installations at Shark Reef Aquarium, Las Vegas, and Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Florida which are both trading strongly.
Following the successful launch of the group’s 22-seater installation at Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Immotion said it has agreed a 12 month extension to the original agreement. Clearwater Marine Aquarium originally entered into an initial year-long contract with Immotion which launched in March 2021.
The group has also completed two smaller installations into Legoland Discovery Center Bay Area, located in Milpitas, California, USA (four seats), and a summer pop-up at Lightwater Valley Theme Park in Yorkshire (six seats).
Immotion commercial director, Rod Findley, said: “The overall performance of our Location-Based Entertainment business continues to be very strong, driven by our new larger style formats. The new installation at Sea Life Orlando, as well as the contract extension from Clearwater Aquarium, is the latest step on this new area of focus as we look to accelerate growth.
“Interest in new installations remains strong, and with our new Zoo offering looking to be ready for Q1 2022 installs, we are extremely excited for the future of our business.”
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Flowtech Fluidpower’s Skelmersdale base
Skelmersdale-based hydraulics group Flowtech Fluidpower said it is continuing to make good progress on all aspects of the implementation of its long term strategy and remains focused on addressing the short term challenges presented by supply chain issues and inflationary pressures.
In a trading update for the six months to June 30, the AIM-listed specialist technical fluid power products supplier said revenue streams have increased significantly, although have yet to fully recover to pre COVID-19 levels.
It has implemented price increases across its businesses to reflect both uplifts levied by certain of its suppliers and higher carriage costs following Brexit.
It has also invested in the plans under way to bring its Flowtech business to market under one brand.
Flowtech said it is now in a position where, at half-year end, its profitability is slightly in excess of expectations.
Net debt, at June 30, 2021 was £13.3m, representing a £1.7m increase from the position at December 31, 2020, which is in line with expectations and previous messaging and is driven by the impact of increased revenue on the working capital position.
It said current trading remains encouraging. However, it is difficult to assess both the likely short term demand from customers and any ongoing and widely experienced disruption in its supply chain.
Overall, Flowtech expects full year 2021 result to be in line with market expectations.
