More customers using its premium products boosted sales at theme park queuing specialist Lo-Q (LON:LOQ) in its latest half-year.
Revenues rose to £3.7 million (£3.27 mln) in the six months to April, driven by a 14 per cent rise in average revenue per guest, which outweighed a 1 per cent fall in the total number of people using Lo-Q’s products as poor weather hit European attendances.
Lo-Q’s customers are theme and water parks and it is very heavily weighted to their season, which coincides with the second half of its trading year.
This year's second half will be even more important due to new customers and upgraded of existing installations.
Expenditure on the new contracts and ongoing research and development meant interim losses rose to £1.1 mln, from £0.94 mln, though cash at the half-year also rose to £5.27 mln.
Tom Burnet, chief executive, said: "We have had an encouraging first half, contracting with both new and existing customers and ensuring that these new mandates were installed efficiently and effectively, ready for the important second half trading period.”
Lo-Q users reserve their place in a queue electronically and are notified when their turn is up, spending less time queuing.
US theme parks operator Six Flags is the largest customer for its Q-Bot queuing product.
Nine water parks run by Six Flags have also just started to use Q-Band, a waterproof RFID wristband that allows customers to reserve their favourite slide, though the full impact of these new parks won't come through until the product establishes itself, usually over a 3 or 4 year period the company said.
Lo-Q is also expanding the use of its queuing technology through smartphones.
A 12-week trial is underway in London for a single-line attraction, with a smartphone trial in a US theme park to start this summer.
A global agreement with MasterCard to develop a new contactless payment solution to be used in water parks and elsewhere is progressing in line with expectations, Lo-Q added.
The company is also exploring a partnership with a well established pan-Asian business to provide an entry into Asia.
It represents the fastest growing market geographically for Lo-Q, with the top 20 Asian parks growing attendance by some 9.4 per cent in 2011.
Overall Burnet said trading was going well, adding "I remain confident that the momentum will carry on into the second half.”
“Although we are only at the beginning of the key summer trading period of the majority of our existing parks, we are ready to take full advantage of our increased operational footprint and look forward to a full year financial performance in line with our expectations.”