Skydiving centre provides sales uplift

THE managing director of the Airkix indoor skydiving attraction has said that its £6m Manchester facility continues to perform profitably and is winning good levels of repeat business from expert skydivers and enthusiasts.

The company’s accounts for the year to March 31 showed that sales were up by 7% to £3.1m and were 16% higher if consultancy fees were stripped out.

This was due largely to a 16-week contribution from its Manchester outlet, which is close to Peel Holdings’ Trafford Centre and next to a group of leisure attractions include the Chill Factore, JJB Soccer Dome and the Paradise Island Driving range.

Managing director Simon Ward said that the Manchester Airkix, which is only the company’s second wholly-owned facility, had attracted high levels of repeat business since opening on December 22nd – with around 15% of its income coming from regular customers.

“It takes time for a new destination to bed in and there’s been a slower build-up than we expected,” he said. “But it’s a massive coverage area – it’s within reach of something like 12m customers and it’s on a good site.

“The skydivers also love it because the tunnel is longer than the one we have at Milton Keynes.”

He said that the firm had found things more difficult to generate publicity about the attraction as the marketplace is much more crowded than in Milton Keynes.

For instance, the unit in the South primarily advertises on one radio station and with two newspapers.

“Here, you have a load of radio, newspapers and web stuff. But the best marketing for us is word-of-mouth,” he said.

For instance, he said the firm conducts exit surveys with around 50,000 customers and its average satisfaction rating is around 95%.

The accounts show that the firm made a pre-tax profit of £721,895 during the period, compared with £834,755 in the previous year. They also state that “excellent build cost management” meant that not only was the Manchester tunnel built in record time, it also cost less than expected.

The company had agreed a £2.5m development loan, of which only £1.1m was drawn down. Strong subsequent trading has allowed the firm to replace this with a five-year asset finance facility worth £850,000.