Comedy giant made £4.7m last year

Comedy agent and TV company Avalon has almost doubled its profits, to £4.67million.

Accounts just filed at Companies House show the entertainment firm made a pre-tax profit in the year to June 2011 of £4.67million, compared to £2.52million over the same period the year before.

The company makes TV Burp, That Sunday Night Show and Russell Howard’s Good News and represents the likes of Frank Skinner, Lee Mack and Dave Gorman.

But the accounts say its UK business was relatively stable, with the big gains coming from the expansion overseas, where it produces the sitcom Workaholics for America’s Comedy Central and chat show Rove LA for FOX8 in Australia.

The directors’ report in the accounts said: ‘The group’s success is based on a strategy of developing and maximising revenue the value of strong brands.

‘We do this by working with some of the best creative talent in the business, nurturing and developing new ideas and properties both on and off-screen, delivering a strong television production slate, retaining rights in our programming and by having a highly focused distribution team operating in the secondary market.

‘This strategy requires a significant level of reinvestment of profits back into the creative process.’

The £4.67million profit was made on a turnover of £55.5million, up from £39.1million the year before.

The company has a staff of 81, and a total wage bill of £5.5million. Its six directors paid themselves just over £1million between them.

Published: 3 Apr 2012