Erlebnis Akademie AG: Business performance in the first half of 2021 characterized by the five-month closure of the sites

Bad Kötzting, 31. August 2021 – In the first half of 2021, the sales figures of Erlebnis Akademie were strongly affected by the pandemic and the almost complete closure of all national and international locations, in some cases for more than five months, which was even longer than in the previous year. Accordingly, Erlebnis Akademie AG generated sales of EUR 2.12 million at the Group level in the first half of the year, down from EUR 3.56 million (-40.5%) in the previous year. At the level of the AG, sales amounted to EUR 1.45 million, compared with EUR 2.02 million in the previous year (-28.2%).  

"Considering that we were only able to use June to generate revenue in the first six months of the year - and unfortunately with continued restrictions on overall operations at most locations - we did quite well," explains Christoph Blaß, CFO of Erlebnis Akademie AG. "However, this should not hide the fact that 2021 is still very difficult in terms of revenue and will probably remain so. We had hoped for a more dynamic course for the way out of the Corona pandemic. On the earnings side, we will benefit from the Interim Aid III for 2021, which has already been paid out for the months of January to June. The earnings contribution, which is usually negative in the first half of the year due to the seasonal nature of the business, has actually improved slightly at the AG compared with the previous year."

Erlebnis Akademie achieved an operating result EBIT at Group level of -2.59 million euros, compared to -2.46 million euros in the previous year. EBITDA amounted to -0.67 million euros after -0.54 million euros in the first half of 2020. At the AG level, EBIT was -1.15 million euros after -1.47 million euros in the previous year.

All of the company's locations, including the food service operations, were largely closed for Corona-related reasons in the first six months of 2021. Reopenings have been possible successively since May, and the last facility was able to reopen in mid-June 2021. In some cases, however, there are still restrictive conditions at the individual sites that do not yet allow full operation of the facilities, including the catering outlets. Also, the continued restrictive travel conditions and the 3G regulations are having an impact on visitor numbers. Bernd Bayerköhler, CEO of Erlebnis Akademie: "The current fiscal year has so far been a year full of innovations and many imponderables for us - in the west also due to the prolonged rainfall. It therefore remains to be seen how we will be able to close the year as a whole due to the restrictions that continue to exist (e.g. 3G regulations). It is of crucial importance to us that we nevertheless used the time to implement our new projects as planned. We were able to open the two new locations Usedom and Alsace in the summer. We are also well on track with the new sites planned for 2022 in Canada and Ireland. Construction is already underway in Canada and is due to start shortly in Ireland. Despite the harsher restrictions that were not expected, we continue to see very good prospects for the future from 2022 and beyond, if the restrictions imposed due to the pandemic are further eased or eliminated altogether."

Due to a lack of comparability, Erlebnis Akademie will this year refrain from preparing a voluntary quarterly report in the usual form for the second quarter of 2021.

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Erlebnis Akademie AG: Business performance in the first half of 2021 characterized by the five-month closure of the sites