C. & S.

 

The company began by producing several different models of bumper cars and continues to be well-known for this type of attraction, but it has gradually widened its product range and today offers several different models of adult, mid-size and children’s/mini bumper cars, including various themed vehicles. Additionally, the company offers a small selection of other rides and attractions, including go-karts, dark ride vehicles and coaster cars and trains, while it has in the past produced one off attractions for customers, including large trains for Gardaland in Italy and the Las Llamas track ride for Parque Isla Magica in Spain.

 

A new bumper car model is introduced more or less every year, with the Midi Old Timer being the most recent addition brought in during 2008. Some in the range are sold for six or seven years before being phased out and a lot of custom made bodies are produced for customers with specific requirements. Currently there are six adult, four midi and four mini models available at any one time, while a new model is also being designed which will be “not too expensive in  view of the economic climate,” according to the company’s Giancarlo Bellotti. “We hope to launch this at the EAS show in Amsterdam and it will have a lower price but will still have a nice style.”

 

The majority of the company’s work at present is for parks and FECs, with Bellotti explaining that a good part of the travelling business C & S used to enjoy has now gone.

 

“We have only done three or four sets of bumper cars for travelling people since January,” he said (at the end of May), noting that among current projects were three mini bumper car tracks for venues in Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, with another being produced for a client in Moscow. At the time of our interview, negotiations were also under way for another track in Newcastle, England, while two large indoor tracks were also being discussed for Northern Europe and Saudi Arabia.

 

Europe, therefore, continues to be one of the better areas for the company at the moment, while most of the Middle East is also fairly active.

 

“We’ve found the small to medium sized customers to be much better than the big, huge projects,” noted Bellotti. “Russia is going okay too and there is some work in Spain, although it is nothing like it used to be. I was confident up to February this year but then the customers, travelling ones in particular, decided not to come and buy. Even with the Reverchon factory closing (in France) we have not seen their customers coming to anyone else, although maybe they will in a year or two.

 

“The trend in the Middle East is the same as before and we are making the same number of vehicles for this area as we did last year. But the rest of the world, particularly in the travelling sector, is suffering very hard in many countries. Our sales used to be 50/50 between the travelling and static sectors, or 65/35, but now it’s 90 per cent for parks and FECs and 10 per cent for travelling, at the moment anyway.”