Lo-Q gains on virtual queuing device

[29yrswithaGApass]

From: The Financial Times Limited

 

Lo-Q gains on virtual queuing device

By Amanda Vermeulen

 

Published: September 22 2008 16:46 | Last updated: September 22 2008 16:46

 

Shares in Lo-Q, supplier of a virtual queuing system that allows visitors to amusement parks to jump the line, rose sharply on Monday as it predicted full-year profits would be twice market expectations.

 

The Aim-listed company said unaudited pre-tax profits at the end of August were “in excess of 100 per cent of market forecasts”.

 

The bulk of Lo-Q’s revenue comes from US leisure operator Six Flags, which has a number of theme parks in many US states, as well as Canada, Mexico and Dubai. Lo-Q was also recently installed by Legoland near Windsor.

 

Customers typically pay about £10 each to avoid time-consuming queues on top of the standard charges for park entrance and rides.

 

Analysts had expected Lo-Q to make about £700,000 in pre-tax profits for the full year. In the six months to June, it reported pre-tax profit of £182,281 compared with £14,327 in the previous year.

 

Lo-Q’s product, the Q-bot, is the size of a pager and allows theme park visitors to mark their place in any queue for booked rides without having to endure long waiting times.

 

Visitors are alerted when they “reach” the end of the queue and are due to for their ride, which they generally access via a separate entrance.

 

The company said that trading had been strong in the summer months – its main trading season – helped by an increase in Q-bot rentals and a stronger dollar, as well as a rise in the number of theme parks using the product compared with the prior year.

 

Jeff McManus, chairman, said: “After having been available in theme parks for over seven years now, Q-bots are becoming a cultural normality for theme park visitors.”

 

The shares surged nearly a third to 31p.

 

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

 

[JetsDevs4Lyf]

I refuse to ever do these as I just can't bring myself to spend that much more money at a park just to have fun. Shows simply that parks know they don't have enough attractions for the volume they bring in.

[darkridedan]

I had Flash Pass bought for me on my birthday at SFNE a couple of years ago. I told my friend we didn't need it and everything was a walk on!

 

EDIT: I haven't had the need to buy it. I go to the smaller parks in the busy season when I need my "amusement fix."

 

 

Edited September 23, 2008 by darkridedan

[rcji]

Gold flash Pass + Me = yea it's a lot of money but when you return it at the end of the day your money spent on it was well worth it. I usually can get around rides on a typical day with normal crowds of people. They have to make loads of money Lo-Q from flash pass because it really doesn't cost them much to operate.