Studio behind Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind goes bust in the UK
The visual effects giant behind classics including The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind has collapsed in the UK amid a sharp downturn for film producers.
Paris-based Technicolor Group, which was founded in 1915, has filed for administration after bosses failed to find a buyer. The majority of the company's 440 employees in the UK have been made redundant.
In a letter to UK staff over the weekend, Technicolor blamed a 'variety of factors' including the post-pandemic recovery, the US writers' strike and a troubled spin-off from its parent company.
It said this had led to a 'slowdown in customer orders causing severe cash flow pressures'.
The collapse spells the end of an era for one of the world's oldest film companies, which pioneered the technology used in colour films.
Technicolor was invented by two former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors. The company made its first feature film in 1917 and went on to develop hundreds of hits, including Pinocchio, Meet Me in St Louis, Vertigo and Breakfast at Tiffany's.
The group acquired a number of major VFX and post-production studios including Soho-based The Mill and MPC, and its more recent blockbusters include the Harry Potter films, last year's Mufasa: The Lion King and the upcoming Mission: Impossible instalment.
Special effects and post-production services are a critical component of the film-making process, with most modern films and TV series relying on animation and computer-generated imagery to create scenes that cannot be filmed in real life.
Technicolor has also expanded into advertising and gaming, including the Fifa football franchise and Hogwarts Legacy.
But Technicolor, which saw its UK losses surge to £52m in 2023 while revenues dropped by 30pc to £87m, has suffered a downturn in its fortunes in recent years amid wider troubles in the film and TV industry. Its collapse comes after lengthy production shutdowns caused by the pandemic and major Hollywood strikes as well as rising labour costs.
The company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020 as it sought to push through a restructuring. It has undergone a number of management changes and Technicolor was spun out of the wider French group, which has since been renamed Vantiva, in 2022.
Directors have been in talks with potential buyers for a number of months, including Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and private equity groups, but a deal has failed to materialise.
Technicolor employs 10,000 people worldwide, with operations in the UK, US, France, India and Canada.
The appointment of administrators at Interpath Advisory only affects Technicolor's UK operations. However, the group last week said it would shut down offices in the US and has also entered receivership in France.
Nick Holloway, of Interpath, said: 'The Technicolor Group has a long and proud heritage, dating back more than a century and whose credits include working on famous films including Disney's Pinocchio in the 1940s, all the way through to more recently, Ridley Scott's Prometheus.
'Unfortunately, the economic headwinds which are affecting companies right across the creative industries have proved too challenging to overcome, which has led to Technicolor's UK business being placed into administration today.
'As we seek to affect an orderly wind-down of the business, we will endeavour to support the company's workforce who have been impacted by redundancy, as well as exploring options to realise the company's assets.'
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