PROFITS AT Windmill Lane Pictures, the well-known Dublin-based TV and film-editing studio, fell by 21 per cent last year as spending on commercials and programming slowed down.
Accounts provided to The Irish Timesshow that Windmill Lane Ltd made a profit in 2008 of €799,137 compared with just over €1 million in the previous year.
Its gross profit fell by 17.6 per cent to €4.2 million.
In an interview with The Irish Times, chief executive James Morris said the recession had a direct impact on the business.
“In the final quarter of last year, which is normally the busiest period for us, it didn’t really happen and this year there’s been a substantial drop in investment in programming,” Mr Morris said.
He noted that RTÉ’s commissioning budget has been halved, while there has been a 30 per cent reduction in spending on commercials. To help address the problem, pay cuts were introduced earlier this year, with executives agreeing to reductions of 15-20 per cent.
Mr Morris said trading in 2009 has been equally tough. “The recession affects our business as much as anyone else. Our aim is to break even. We would be very happy with that result.”
In spite of the downturn, Windmill Lane has pressed ahead with a €4.7 million investment in new premises in Herbert Place in Dublin. The move was funded by the sale four years ago of its famous south docks studios, where U2 made five albums.
It is also now focusing its marketing on securing international TV and film-editing projects.
“We have got to get international work in. When we were planning this three years ago, we weren’t doing badly. The Irish economy was in great shape and we were getting our share of that. Suddenly, that all changed in the past 12 months.
“We really have to reinvent ourselves in a big way.”
Mr Morris and his fellow shareholders – his brother Tim, Tony Kilduff, Dermot Desmond, Tim Brosnan and Martin Hawkes – have also put in place an arrangement that will see the ownership of the business pass to key management personnel.
“We have set aside for our management group, over a period of time, a transfer process,” Mr Morris said. Two senior members of management – David Quinn and Peter Brady – became shareholders earlier this year.
“Essentially, it’s a management buy-in process,” he added. “We have a new generation of managers coming down the line.
“Over the next three to five years we’re planning this so there can be a realistic and orderly transfer of ownership based on how the business performs.”
