Ent One hit shows hike revenue 30pc
ENTERTAINMENT One saw revenues jump a staggering 30 per cent, buoyed by hit franchises Twilight and Peppa Pig.
The children’s cartoon starring Peppa brought in almost £100m in sales, including revenue from a lucrative range of children’s toys.
It has a number of major programmes in the pipeline, including Stephen King collaboration Haven, a version of John Grisham’s The Firm, cop show Rookie Blue and the next instalment of Twilight.
Chief executive Darren Throop told City A.M.: “The results are excellent, it’s been a great year for us. The entire business performed very well.”
The firm’s Ebitda shot up 36 per cent to £34m, with profit before tax of £7m, up from a loss of £31m the year before. It also reduced its debt from more than £80m to £63.2m.
Revenue on rapidly expanding digital sales generated £20m, making the firm the market leader in this sector.
Throop described Apple chief executive Steve Jobs as “the Albert Einstein of our time” as his firm prepares a digital strategy to cash in on the roaring success of the iPad.
He said: “We are really excited about digital. This is an increasingly major part of our business and the return on capital is absolute.”
Entertainment One will complete a long-mooted move to the main London market in the summer, with Throop saying it will improve the firm’s profile and give it access to more investors. He added the growing size and scale of the company mean it is “ready to move up to the big league”.
He said he expects the firm to extend its international footprint through a number of acquisitions in the coming months.