Pretax profits at the parent business of multi-award winning animation studio Brown Bag Films last year more than halved to €2.42 million.
The 58.5 per cent decrease in pretax profits from €5.85 million to €2.42 million arises from Niagara Films Ireland Ltd incurring an exceptional one-off write down of €3.64 million in distribution costs for one of its TV programmes.
Revenues at the business – which operates from studios in Dublin, Toronto and Bali – increased marginally from €57.98 million to €58.96 million in the 12 months to the end of August last.
The firm last year paid dividends of €2.4 million after paying dividends of €1.52 million in 2021.
The business – celebrating its 29th year in business this year – continues to flourish with a number of new shows debuting in the past year including Cartoonito’s Lu & the Bally Bunch and Eva the Owlet for Apple+.
The studios have also produced new seasons and episode drops for Ridley Jones and Ada Twist Scientist, both for Netflix, along with Eureka for Disney Junior.
Founded in Dublin in 1994 by Cathal Gaffney and Darragh O’Connell, Brown Bag Films was acquired by Canadian based 9 Story Media Group in 2015.
The firm’s operating profits declined by 10.5 per cent from €6.78 million to €6.07 million last year and the business recorded the pretax profit of €2.42 million after taking into account the exceptional €3.64 million cost and interest costs of €340,592.
The profits for last year also take account of non-cash depreciation costs of €992,014 and non-cash amortisation costs of intangible assets and acquired content of €3.2 million.
The firm also incurred additional amortisation/impairment of TV shows in production of €9.5m that included the €3.64 million non-cash impairment.
The revenues last year were made up of €47.27 million in production revenue and €11.69 million in distribution revenue.
The firm also benefited from €153,005 in grant income in other operating income.
Numbers employed decreased from 373 to 366 as staff costs increased from €22.05 million to €23.03 million. Directors’ pay increased from €766,713 to €798,812.
The firm recorded a post tax profit of €1.68 million after paying corporation tax of €742,846.
Brown Bag’s work also includes global children’s TV hits Doc McStuffins and Henry Hugglemonster.
Shareholder funds at the end of August last year totalled €59.89 million that included accumulated profits of €20.26 million.
The company’s cash funds declined sharply from €30.58 million to €19.23 million.
