Empire Industries Announces Executive Appointments

Appointments put greater emphasis on themed attraction contract execution and co-ventures

TORONTO, July 20, 2017 – Empire Industries Ltd. (TSX-V: EIL) is pleased to announce executive appointments for its wholly owned subsidiary, Dynamic Attractions Ltd. and its Dynamic Structures division. These appointments are part of the company’s strategy to be a leader in delivering themed attractions globally. All six executives will report to Guy Nelson, the CEO of Empire Industries Ltd.

Hao Wang – President & Chief Operating Officer, Dynamic Attractions
Over the past 21 years, Mr. Wang held increasingly responsible executive leadership positions at Multimatic Inc., a global, high performance, automobile design, engineering and manufacturing company headquartered in Ontario. For the past five years, Mr. Wang was Vice President of Asia Pacific, where he led the creation of Multimatic’s production operations in China and presence in South Korea, India and the ASEAN region.

“The themed attractions market is growing at a thrilling speed,” states Mr. Nelson. “With Hao leading the ride system design and manufacturing for Dynamic Attractions, we’re better positioned to successfully execute the complex contracts we have been awarded and expect to continue to receive in this exciting market. Hao is an entrepreneurial leader with global experience and we anticipate his expertise will help our execution team reach a new level of performance.”

Dr. Ye Zhou –President of Dynamic Structures and Chief Technical Officer of Dynamic Attractions
Dr. Zhou has been promoted to Chief Technical Officer of Dynamic Attractions where he will provide his considerable technical expertise to the management and mitigation of technical risk related to the complex ride systems that Dynamic Attractions designs and builds. Dr. Zhou has held the position of President of Dynamic Structures since 2014 and will continue with this executive role in addition to being Chief Technical Officer of Dynamic Attractions. Ye Zhou has been with Dynamic Structures for over 20 years and has gained invaluable experience in precision engineering design and this unique knowledge and experience will be an invaluable addition to the Dynamic Attractions executive leadership team.

Peter White-Robinson – Chief Operating Officer, Dynamic Structures
Mr. White-Robinson joined Empire in 2013 as Executive Vice President of Media-Based Attractions and recently took on the COO role of Dynamic Structures to work with Dr. Zhou in the leadership of this globally competitive, precision fabrication business unit. Mr. White-Robinson’s management skills are well honed after undertaking a management buy-out of Fitzroy Engineering in 1991 and growing it from 100 employees and NZD 14 million to a profitable group of companies employing 900 and a NZD 120 million turnover. The Fitzroy group of companies was involved in the design, fabrication and project management for numerous industrial projects in New Zealand as well as being the founder of an award winning, superyacht fabrication Company with 200 employees. He sold his various businesses between 2011 and 2013 and moved to Canada.

Paul Poirier – Senior Vice President, Strategic Accounts and Service, Dynamic Attractions
Paul Poirier is being promoted from Vice President of Operations, the executive role he has been employed at for the past 18 months. This position has been created specifically to focus on generating more strategic sales with industry leading theme park clients globally. Mr. Poirier was the team leader on the recent USD $120 million contract award. He will also be in charge of managing and growing the Parts and Service division. He has experience in this area from his time as Vice President of Global Delivery for CAE’s civil simulator products, responsible for program management, customer support and post delivery services. His almost 20 years of experience in manufacturing management greatly add to his depth of knowledge of manufactured, complex products and working with customers on major build programs. His experience dovetails with the company’s focus on supplying ‘concept to operation’ solutions in the themed attraction market.

Brian Peebles – Senior Vice President, Co-Ventures, Empire Industries Ltd.
Brian Peebles has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Co-Ventures for Empire.  In this role, he will lead the company’s new initiative to have an ownership stake in some of the proprietary attractions the company produces. The co-ventures initiative is designed to put the company’s proprietary products in prime tourist locations and retain an ownership interest in the co-venture. Mr. Peebles has over two decades of operational experience in theater co-venture partnerships. He was Senior Vice President at Simex-Iwerks Entertainment, a company he co-founded. He was responsible for the installation of over 200 theater sales and 14 co-venture theater partnerships in theme parks and tourist destinations around the world. Mr. Peebles joined Empire Industries Ltd. in 2015 in the role of Vice President, Special Projects.

George Walker – Senior Vice President, Creative Services, Dynamic Attractions
George Walker has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Creative, where he will lead all the creative, value added contributions of converting our ride systems into attractions for clients, with a particular focus on turning our co-venture ride systems into world class attractions. Mr. Walker joined Dynamic Attractions in 2015 as the company’s first Creative Development Director. He led the creation of the Unlimited Attractions™ business unit and the opening of the Orlando Attractions Demonstration Centre.  He also created the company’s newest award winning product, the Dynamic Motion Theater.  Prior to joining Dynamic Attractions, he was Creative Director for Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, where he oversaw an eight-attraction expansion that includes Dynamic’s first SFX Coaster: ‘MISSION: Ferrari,’ opening later this year. Mr. Walker’s background includes creating innovative projects for Disney, Universal, Warner Brothers, Six Flags and MGM.
“Empire has changed significantly,” stated Mr. Nelson. “Our themed attractions business has shown tremendous growth, and we needed to enhance our leadership team to continue to capitalize on the market opportunities and to deliver on the key success factors needed to address this growing market. Moreover, our Dynamic Structures business unit is also facing tremendous opportunities in its business globally. With these promotions and additions to our executive leadership team, we have greatly enhanced our operational and creative leadership for the global markets we are leaders in.  They also reflect Empire’s commitment to increase our capacity to manage this growth.”

The executive changes are effective immediately with the exception of Hao Wang, who will officially join the company immediately after the transition from Multimatic Inc., all subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Private Placement, Inducement Shares
Empire is pleased to announce that the executives who were not already Insiders of Empire (the “New Executives”) have agreed to purchase an aggregate of up to 800,000 common shares in the capital of Company (“Common Shares”) at a price of $0.53 per Common Share for gross proceeds of up to $424,000 pursuant to a private placement (the “New Executive Offering”).  As a condition of employment of each of the New Executives, the Company agreed to issue 1.5 Common Shares (the “Inducement Shares”) to each New Executive for each Common Share that the New Executive purchased pursuant to the New Executive Offering.  Assuming the New Executives purchase all of the Common Shares anticipated to be issued pursuant to the New Executive Offering, an aggregate of 1,200,000 Inducement Shares will be issued at a deemed price of $0.66 to the New Executives. Closing of the New Executive Offering and the issuance of the Inducement Shares are subject to customary conditions, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, and are anticipated to close on or about August 31, 2017.  All the Common Shares and Inducement Shares issued will be subject to a four month and one day hold period.  The Company intends to use the proceeds of the New Executive Offering for general corporate and administrative purposes.

About Empire Industries Ltd.

The company focuses on designing, supplying, and installing premium theme park, media-based attractions and ride systems for the global entertainment industry. The company also uses these same turn-key integration services for special projects such as large optical telescopes and enclosures. Empire Industries’ common shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol EIL.

For more information about the company, visit www.empind.com or contact:

Reader Advisory

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The offered securities mentioned in this news release will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”) and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of U.S. persons except in certain transactions exempt from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act.

This news release contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, concerning Empire’s business and affairs. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as ‘‘plans’’, ‘‘expects’’ or ‘‘does not expect’’, ‘‘budget’’, ‘‘scheduled’’, ‘‘estimates’’, “forecasts’’, ‘‘intends’’, ‘‘anticipates’’ or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results ‘‘may’’, ‘‘could’’, ‘‘would’’, ‘‘might’’ or ‘‘will be taken’’, ‘‘occur’’ or ‘‘be achieved’’. Such forward-looking statements include those with respect to the Company’s intention to complete the private placement (the “Private Placement”) and use the proceeds of the Private Placement as working capital for general corporate and administrative purposes.

These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, and are naturally subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances that may cause actual results to differ materially. Although Empire believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that these expectations will prove to be correct.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information is provided as of the date of this press release, and Empire assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. Any such forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

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