Liège (Belgium) and London (UK—Dec 9, 2016
CinemaNext Announces Agreement with Empire Cinemas for Field & Customer Services at 14 Cinema Locations
CinemaNext, the European specialist in cinema
exhibitor services
(Ymagis Group - ISIN:
FR0011471291, TICKER: MAGIS), is pleased today to announce the signature of an
agreement with the UK’s leading independently-owned cinema chain, Empire
Cinemas, to oversee the projection & audio installations, field services
and technical customer support for Empire’s entire network of 14 locations
across Great Britain, representing a total of 127 screens, including two IMAX
Cinemas.
The
companies share a number of synergies - with Empire looking to achieve a lower
cost for their technical requirements, and CinemaNext looking to continue to
build their install, planned and reactive maintenance expertise to ensure the
highest level of customer service and support in the UK.
“We
are delighted with this new partnership with CinemaNext’s London team,”
comments Justin Ribbons, Chief Executive of Empire Cinemas. "We have had
an in-house engineering team for many years, but with the advent of digital and
the technical changes that our indu
stry has,
and continues to have, it is more cost effective to have a good technical
partner that can carry the cost of training, spare parts inventory,
installations and, importantly, supporting our cinemas so that they continue to
offer our customers the best possible cinematic experience.”
“The immediate result of this agreement with Empire Cinemas is the
significant strengthening of our UK-based operations with the addition of six
new highly-skilled and experienced engineers to our local team led by Jerry
Murdoch (Country Manager, CinemaNext UK) and André Mort (now Technical
Director, CinemaNext UK),” explains Till Cussmann, SVP CinemaNext. “It also
increases our business opportunities and will demonstrate our top-notch
services and cost benefits for Empire Cinemas and our other existing cinema
customers across the UK.”
Empire Cinemas was founded in
2005 following the mergers of Odeon and UCI and Cineworld and UGC. The cinema
chain took its name from the iconic Empire Leicester Square, which has been one
of London’s most popular cinemas since it played host to the first moving
images screened to a UK audience in 1896. It was Empire’s flagship until its
sale to Cineworld in August 2016. Empire Cinemas will open a new 14-screen
complex in February 2017 and another 10-screen complex is scheduled to open in early
2018. These new additions to the portfolio will increase Empire locations to 16
cinemas and 151 screens, helping to strengthen their position as the leading
independent cinema operator in the UK.
CinemaNext is the largest cinema exhibition services
company in Europe
, providing smart, comprehensive solutions across the
board, from projection equipment, audio systems, central systems, cinema
outfitting, 3D projection systems & glasses, TMS, digital signage, screens to
seating. Clients enjoy the highest level of reliability and lowest cost of
ownership through our various services: consulting, design & project
management, equipment sales and financing, installation, maintenance, support
(NOC), online monitoring, spare and consumables, service agreements and supply
chain & logistics. 9,000 screens have been installed by its technicians to
date and 7,000 screens in Europe currently avail of service contracts.
