New Contract and Trading Update

RNS Number : 5860O

Immotion Group PLC

10 February 2021

 

Immotion Group plc

("Immotion", the "Company" or the "Group")

New Contract and Trading Update

Immotion Group, the UK-based immersive entertainment group, is pleased to announce it has signed a contract to provide a new Undersea Explorer VR Theatre at Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida, USA. This is expected to open in March 2021.

The immersive theatre will include interactive pre-show exhibits, as well as a 22-seat VR theatre where customers can enjoy the Group's "Swimming with Humpbacks" VR movie.  The installation will be part of the Aquarium's new Whales: "Living with Giants" exhibit.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium is one of the leading aquariums and marine life rescue and research facilities in Florida and was featured in the films Dolphin Tale and Dolphin Tale 2. The facility is dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of sick and injured marine animals, public education, conservation and research. With over 750,000 annual visitors historically, it has recently completed an $80m upgrade to its facilities and the Undersea Explorer VR Theatre will be a centrepiece of the new exhibit space. 

The installation will be focused on whales, including Immotion's interactive "Humpbacks Revealed" exhibit which allows guests to learn more about the amazing anatomy of these whales, as well as "Songs of the Sea" which gives guests a window into the humpback's mesmerizing vocalisations.  The pinnacle of the exhibit will be Immotion's amazing "Swimming with Humpbacks" VR movie, filmed in the Pacific Ocean off Tonga, the first motion-platform VR film to capture mother whales and their calves in their natural habitat. 

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium agreement allows for a 50:50 revenue share with the Partner, along with a monthly fee to Immotion to defray installation costs.  The contract will initially be for 12 months, with scope to extend including the addition of new content to refresh the experience for guests over time.

Locations in Florida are generally open to the public; though with safety precautions and related restrictions in place.

Location Based Entertainment ("LBE") - Update

U.S.A

In the USA, we have 23 Partner locations.  20 of these are open, with 18 operating our VR installations.  Two further partner locations remain closed completely and a further one partner site is mid renovation.

Trading at our operational USA aquarium partner sites is encouraging for the time of year and given the overall trading environment. 

Other USA non-aquarium partner sites are trading as expected given the level of restrictions in place and we look forward to those recovering further as and when restrictions are eased in the months ahead.

With regard to our site at Shark Reef Aquarium, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, a review of the current restrictions is due by the Nevada authorities on 15 February 2021 and given the fall in local Covid cases, the Company is hopeful the current 25% capacity restriction, which has significantly impacted short term revenues, may be relaxed to its pre-November levels and then upwards from there.

In terms of future developments, we have seen a significant uplift in enquiries from potential new partners and are in discussions in relation to a number of larger sites in the USA, in line with our stated strategy of focusing on fewer but higher traffic sites, which can support larger interactive installations, and which are a more integral part of the Partner offering.

UK

Whilst the UK LBE business (including our own ImmotionVR entertainment centres) is sadly still closed, we are hopeful that as progress is made with the UK vaccination programme, we will benefit at least from a strong summer of trading and would hope that we may even see some earlier easing of restrictions.  We believe that there will be considerable pent up consumer demand for out of home entertainment and the UK leisure market should benefit from a significant "staycation" season if it opens up for the summer.

Other Territories

Our installations at Sealife Sydney and Melbourne are open, and trading is picking up as Australia enters its summer season. In addition, the Company expects to open a Tower Coaster at the landmark Sydney Tower Eye in the next few weeks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, whilst our LBE business has experienced very challenging trading conditions as a result of the various lockdowns and restrictions, we are increasingly optimistic that as vaccine programmes take hold in the UK and USA, and as we move towards the summer in both countries, we will see a strong recovery. We believe that the longer-term prospects for our LBE business remain attractive.

As we stated in our end of year update on 23 December 2020, Q1 of this current year will be very challenging for obvious reasons and we are taking all steps we can, including using the UK furlough scheme and applying for further available USA government support, to mitigate the significant financial impact of restrictions caused by the pandemic. 

However, we believe there is cause for optimism looking forward and we will be well placed to benefit significantly from any easing of restrictions.

Let's Explore

Following the successful UK launch of the Let's Explore home entertainment business in Q4 2020, the Company sold over 11,000 units in the build-up to Christmas.  The quieter post- Christmas period has given us the ability to take a breath and focus on optimising the supply chain, which should see significantly reduced product cost and the opportunity to plan for growth.

Stock has been bought forward at sufficient scale to allow us to achieve a circa 40% reduction in product cost and this will support a USA launch of the Let's Explore Oceans product later this month. In addition, the product is now available on both UK Amazon and eBay marketplaces.

The Company believes there is a very significant opportunity for Christmas 2021 and, unlike 2020 where we launched the product at very high speed, we will have the ability to plan forward.  The focus is to have all operational, logistical and product elements in place to capitalise on the Christmas 2021 opportunity, as well as opening up new geographies in the meantime.  In addition, we plan to develop new genres as we move through the year.

Uvisan  

Sales of the UV cabinets continues to grow, with success in a number of sectors including education (schools and universities), film and TV production and businesses utilising VR headsets in both leisure and B2B applications.

The Company has invested proceeds from the sale of the UV disinfection cabinets into the creation of a proprietary ambient UV room disinfection system.

The new product uses UVC ultraviolet light, combined with a proprietary tablet driven, wireless control and safety system, to offer a simple to install and cost-effective room disinfecting system.

The new product has the ability to disinfect an un-occupied room and its surfaces in as little as ten minutes, making it ideal for both overnight use and particularly for rooms where rapid turnaround between user groups is required.  For example, it is ideal for school and university classrooms, offices, multi-user recording and post-production studios, operating theatres and laboratories to name but a few.

The system has been installed and tested in a University environment and is currently in the final certification process.

Along with the Uvisan UV disinfecting cabinets, the Company will be able to offer a range of products for safe and easy disinfection of rooms, surfaces and equipment and will look to scale up this activity through 2021, working with carefully selected partners.

Commenting on the agreement with Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Rod Findley, Group Commercial Director, Immotion Group plc said:

"We are absolutely delighted to be partnering with Clearwater Marine Aquarium on this milestone installation.  It is a signal that institutions are looking forward to the post-pandemic world and making bold steps to give their guests the newest and most exciting experiences.  We're honoured to be part of the first exhibit to go into the new $80m expansion at the aquarium. With Undersea Explorer operational in March, we will be well poised to take advantage of the Spring and Summer traffic."

"As capacity restrictions are lifted, we are confident our Location Based Entertainment business will recover quickly and return back to delivering solid revenues.

"As far as new partnerships go, we are very pleased with the level of inbound enquiries we are seeing for larger installations, a number of which we believe will come to fruition during this calendar year".

Enquiries:

 For further information please visit  www.immotion.co.uk , or contact: 

Immotion Group	Martin Higginson David Marks Rod Findley	Tel: [phone]
WH Ireland Limited (Nomad and Joint Broker)	Adrian Hadden  Darshan Patel Matthew Chan	Tel + 44 (0) 207 220 1666
Shard Capital Partners LLP (Joint Broker)	Damon Heath Erik Woolgar	Tel: [phone]
Alvarium Capital Partners	Alex Davies	Tel: [phone]

  (Joint Broker)

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 as amended by The Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. Upon the publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

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