Profits at Windmill Lane studio fall 84%

PRE-TAX profits at the well-known TV and film editing studio, Windmill Lane Pictures, that helped produce the recent controversial “Bertie in the cupboard” advert, plummeted last year by 84% to €135,570.

The studio counts the advert amongst its recent post production credits and figures to the end of December 2009 show that the gross profit at Windmill Lane Pictures Ltd reduced by 26% from €4.2 million to €3m.

The figures filed with the Companies Office show that the company’s operating profit dropped by 86% from €782,069 to €103,344.

The company’s chief executive, James Morris said that revenues in the domestic market collapsed at the start of 2009 due to the knock on effect of TV programming cutbacks and a downturn in advertising.

The chair of the Irish Film Board, Mr Morris said: “We are happy to have made a small profit last year.”

He said: “We’re quite happy with things. It is a long way short of what we were doing in ‘06 and ‘07. That being said, in the circumstances, we’re glad to be a position of thinking ahead and making plans.”

Last year, the company pressed ahead with its €5m move to Herbert Place in Dublin. The move was funded by the sale of its famous south docks studios, where U2 made five albums.

Mr Morris said the firm implemented a fairly severe cutback in salaries in February 2009 and those at the top took a cut of between 15% and 20%.

He confirmed they secured a contract to produce Computer Generated Imagery effects on a film Lock Out starring Guy Pierce.