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Globally renowned York entertainment company goes into administration

Paragon project Yorkshire's Jurassic World at the Yorkshire Museum was opened by Sir David Attenborough Photograph: Danny Lawson / PA Wire
@ Business

The future of a creative York business is in doubt after its parent company called in the administrators.

Paragon Entertainment says it no longer has the cash to pay its creditors or continue to trade.

It is the parent company of Paragon Creative, which designs and installs exhibitions for museums and visitor attractions, based at Elvington.

Paragon Creative began in the 1980s as the creative workshop of the Jorvik Viking Centre. Since then it has completed more than a thousand successful projects in the UK and worldwide.

Clients have included Historic Royal Palaces, Imperial War Museum, the Science Museum, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Titanic Belfast and London Zoo.

The company also fitted-out of the Yorkshire’s Jurassic World exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum.

It employs nearly 120 people.

CEO lasted three weeks

An interactive exhibition designed by Paragon at Thinktank, Birmingham’s Science Museum
Paragon Entertainment Ltd, which has a registered overseas address in the Cayman Islands, issued a trading statement last week saying its losses were likely to be more than expected, at £3 million.

The business suspended trading of its shares on Thursday (20 June) and its chief executive Damien Latham resigned after only three weeks. Previous CEO John Dobson left the company in February.

In a statement issued to the London Stock Exchange Paragon Entertainment said:

  • In the light of the above and the operational and financial uncertainty which the company now faces, and in order to protect both shareholders and creditors, the board has taken the decision to place the company into administration and intends to appoint administrators shortly with the purpose of seeking buyers for the company’s business and assets on a going concern basis.

    As a result, the board announces it has requested a suspension of trading in its shares on AIM with effect from 2pm on 20 June 2019. Damien Latham, CEO of the company, has resigned from the business with immediate effect.


Recent Paragon projects include an interactive exhibition about Queen Victoria at Kensington Palace, and an interactive gallery at Birmingham Science Museum.

The company was still recruiting new staff in April.

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