PARAGON Creative, the Elvington-based designer of tourism attractions, has outperformed expectations in its first year as part of new company Paragon Entertainment Ltd, the company said in its first annual results.

The business, which employs about 60 people as well as local sub-contractors said it planned to grow its workforce by 50 per cent in the next six months after almost tripling its annual workload in just the first half of this year.

The business was listed on the AIM market as Paragon Entertainment in January after Cayman Islands investment fund Marwyn Capital II bought it for about £4 million.

Marwyn Capital II was renamed Paragon Entertainment and raised £2.5 million from shareholders to invest in transforming the new business, announcing plans to extend its business from the design and build of tourist attractions into also owning and operating its own attractions.

Mark Pyrah, chief executive, said the business’s existing design and build division exceeded expectations, completing high-profile projects including the new Titanic visitor attraction in Belfast, Sea City Museum in Southampton and Chocolate – York’s Sweet Story.

He said the pipeline of potential opportunities in December stood at £20 million, about five times Paragon Creative’s reported revenue for the financial year to August 2011. It has already contracted £11 million of these projects for delivery over the next 18 months.

He said: “The scale of our projects has also increased significantly and we now have a number of contracts ranging between £1 million and £5 million in size.”

The company has also developed concepts for its own attractions including Quest, a crystal maze-style adventure concept, and Urban Adventure, a high wire concept. Mr Pyrah said the themes had been well received but locations were still to be finalised.

The business reported a £2.9 million operating loss, of which £2.4 million was related to one off items including costs relating to the acquisition of Paragon Creative and aborted transactions which do not relate to the new business.

There was no revenue for the trading period as Paragon Creative was on annual shutdown for the ten days from the acquisition to the year end on December 31.