Animation studio Aardman was left counting the cost of a bill for its new series Lloyd of the Flies as it plunges into the red
The firm behind hit duo Wallace and Gromit was left nursing a more than £500,000 loss last year, blamed on comedy Lloyd of the Flies.
The series follows the adventures of Lloyd B Fly, a housefly and the middle child of 451, and kicked off on kids’ TV channel CITV in late 2022. Maker Aardman said: “Although well-received on release, performance of the brand has been adversely affected by current very challenging market conditions.” The animation studio decided to take a £1.75million hit, but says its hopes to recoup those costs over time.
However, the knock saw Bristol-based Aardman tumble from a £1.5million annual profit to a loss of £550,135 for last year.
Newly-filed accounts with Companies House also showed Aardman’s turnover dipped from £31.7m to £26.7m over the same period. The studio released Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget in December 2023 while the film Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Foul was in production.
A second season of Very Small Creatures was also completed and a seventh season of Shaun the Sheep was greenlit.
Aardman added that its overhead costs increased significantly compared to 2022 and were the highest on record. It said this was mainly due to rises in labour costs due to pay increments, a higher headcount and lower charging of staff time to jobs in production.
In 2018, bosses at Aardman handed over a 75% stake in the business to its workers. The latest accounts showed they benefited from a near £155,500 dividend, although that was down sharply from over £670,000 in 2022. The company employed 417 people last year.
