Lo-Q hire Serco executive Tom Burnet as new CEO

Lo-Q (LON:LOQ) has appointed a new chief executive officer

with effect from October 4 2010. Tom Burnet joins the company from Serco (LON:SRP) where he was managing director of the defence operations division. Lo-Q believes that the "high-calibre" appointment reflects the company’s strong market position as well as its "significant growth potential".

"We expect Tom to provide strong leadership at the next stage of development for the company as we continue to extend our customer base and look to launch a new system aimed at water parks," Lo-Q’s founding director Leonard Sim commented.

Lo-Q develops and markets virtual queueing systems for use in theme parks.
Through Lo-Q’s Q-Bot and Q-Text products, theme park visitors can join a virtual queue for a particular attraction or ride, instead of physically standing in line, then once their ride is ready Lo-Q’s systems alert the customer so they can make their way to the attraction.

The Q-Bot is a handheld unit which is rented by the park visitors, and the Q-Text uses the visitor’s mobile phone instead of the Q-bot, by sending a simple text.

The CEO-elect has a broad range of experience in corporate management. Before Serco, Burnet was MD of QinetiQ’s (LON:QQ) ‘Capability Support Division’ - a technical consultancy - and prior to that Burnet served as both and executive and non-executive at Cedalion Ltd - which is a Microsoft Technology consultant.

Burnet has also worked as an executive director at an events, corporate entertainment and training business, Maximillion Events Ltd.
Last month, in its own H1 results statement, Lo-Q told investors that it was looking ahead to the remainder of the year with excitement, after winning new customers and maintaining a strong cashflow in H1.

In the six-months ended 30 April, Lo-Q increased revenue by 21% from a year earlier to £2.46m.

The company noted that, due to a change in its year-end which was implemented in 2009, the first six months of the financial year now only includes limited trading activity. The majority of parks and attractions in which Lo-Q operate have reduced activity between November and April.  The company’s financial year now ends in October, with the H1 ending in April.

In July, Lo-Q highlighted that “the eventual out-turn for the rest of the year as always will be very dependent on park attendance”, and earlier this week one of the key park operators, who have deployed Lo-Q technology, reported improving visitor trends.

According to Six Flags Entertainment Corp (NYSE:SIX), 9.5 million customers visited its 19 theme parks, representing a 6% increase in visitors compared with H109. Lo-Q’s virtual queuing systems are currently installed at 11 of the major theme parks.

Although the precise impact is difficult to quantify, in terms of Lo-Q’s performance, Six Flag’s positive visitor numbers through to June indicate positive trends for the company.