Virtual reality group sees ‘plentiful growth opportunities’ ahead

Immotion Group, the Salford-based immersive entertainment company, expects its unaudited first half results to show a near EBITDA breakeven outcome on revenue of circa £2.7m.

As previously announced, June 2021 was the best ever monthly result for the virtual reality entertainment group, with unaudited group EBITDA of £126,000 on revenue of £850,000, an uplift on the previously estimated figures, driven largely by the strong performance of the core Location-Based Entertainment (LBE) business.

Immotion also said it is pleased to confirm that the second half of 2021 has started very strongly with July being yet another record month.

Unaudited group revenue was £1m, with unaudited EBITDA at circa £200,000, a considerable increase versus June, taking the company into overall EBITDA profitability for the year to date.

The growth in revenue in July, versus June, has been driven by improved trading in its LBE division, which benefited from school holidays in both the USA and UK, driving LBE revenue to £922,000, up from £732,000 in June.

The group said this demonstrates the operational gearing of its business, with the increase in group EBITDA versus June resulting, in the main, from the increase of £190,000 in LBE revenue.

In addition, Immotion pointed out that neither June nor July results benefited from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme or US equivalent scheme.

The Home-Based Entertainment (HBE) division’s main focus is on building its distribution network to fulfil the busy fourth quarter period when the group expects consumer intent and marketing activity to rise sharply.

Enquiries for its Uvisan disinfection cabinets continue to grow and Immotion expects to see a significant increase in its revenue in the coming months.

Overall, the group said it remains very optimistic about the prospects for the second half of the financial year, assuming no material reversal in the easing of pandemic-related restrictions.

It said the impact of its growing LBE revenue has a significant impact on the income statement and the group remains focused, not only on maximising the performance of its current LBE portfolio, but also the opportunities for growth in 2022 and beyond.

Group chief executive, Martin Higginson, said: “In the circumstances we are very pleased with H1’s result.

“Hitting circa EBITDA breakeven in H1 is a major milestone, especially on COVID-impacted revenues of £2.7m. With July revenue of £1m, we are now seeing clear evidence of the potential of our business.”

He added: “The second half of the year has started very strongly, and this augurs well for a strong H2.

“The trading environment is now unrecognisable compared to the start of the year, as clearly demonstrated by the rapid increase in revenue and EBITDA. The investment in proprietary content, along with the technology to operate larger scale VR theatres, is starting to pay dividends and we are now looking ahead and planning for accelerated growth in 2022 from the plentiful growth opportunities we believe are in front of us.”

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