Brown Bag quite a draw

ONE MORE THING:Brown Bag Films looks to future; Whelan's air tax firm comes under fire; changes afoot at Irish stockbrokers; Bezier lands in Dublin

THESE ARE busy times for Brown Bag Films, the Smithfield-based animation studio with two Oscar nominations under its belt.

With its name now well established in Hollywood, the company has set up a subsidiary in Los Angeles – Brown Bag Films (US) LLC – to handle projects there.

“Since the Oscars we’ve had a lot of interest in our projects,” co-founder Cathal Gaffney told me this week. “We’re actively pursuing feature films as well as TV production.”

Gaffney said the firm had a two-year plan in LA to build on the success of securing two Oscar nominations for Give Up Yer Aul Sins, and Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty.

Brown Bag has also built a second studio in Smithfield – a 6,000sq ft facility with a 50-seat screening room. It was a six-figure investment funded from its own resources, Gaffney said.

It has also taken a stake in Tunepresto.com, a Galway-based music software business.

The latest accounts for Brown Bag Films Ltd show it made an aftertax profit of €379,828 in the year to the end of April 2010. This was roughly half the level of the previous year.

It reflected the timing of certain projects and the fact that a lot of activity is channelled through other companies that are set up to take advantage of Section 481 tax breaks available here to film investors.

These include Noddy Animation Ltd, in which Brown Bag invested €2.4 million last year. Gaffney was relieved that the film tax incentives were left in place by in the last budget.

“It’s absolutely essential to attract investment into the business here,” he said.

“Practically every single country in Europe has incentives and we wouldn’t attract the investments without them. There’s no doubt the benefits outweigh the lost revenues.”

He’s also bullish about business this year.

“We’ve got a number of projects that are waiting for the green light for the summer,” he added.

Air tax refund firm in the wars

AIRTAXREFUND.COM has had a turbulent start to this year.

Ryanair has stepped up the legal pressure on the new business, which is offering to chase air tax refunds for passengers for a small fee.

On February 4th, Ryanair's director of legal and regulatory Juliusz Komorek affairs, fired off two more letters to co-founder Brian Whelan threatening legal action.

Komorek once again accused Whelan's company of producing "false, misleading and defamatory statements" about Ryanair's terms and conditions on its website and in its radio ads.

Komorek also took issue with calculations used by Airtaxrefund.com about how much the airline might be withholding from passengers.

Ryanair has demanded that Whelan correct his adverts and website and apologise to consumers for "misleading them". It also wants a €50,000 donation made to the African eyesight charity Orbis Ireland.

Whelan has been given until 5pm today to respond. He told me the matter was with his legal advisers at William Fry.

There could be another sting in the tail for Whelan. His PR company Zelos Communications acts for the Commission for Aviation Regulation.

Komorek wrote to regulator Cathal Guiomard last week demanding it end its relationship with Whelan and Zelos.

Irish stockbroking has seen better days

CHANGE IS afoot in the Irish stockbroking.

Merrion restructured last year following a buyout by a group led by chief executive John Conroy.

This led to a reduction in headcount although there were some new hires.

Goodbody was sold by AIB to Fexco in Kerry and a handful of staff have departed, with some heading for Smith Williamson.

Now the word is that NCB, part-owned by Seán Quinn, is downsizing.

A number of its research analysts are expected to leave in the near future although some might continue to work as consultants. NCB has also been reducing its services in London.

Meanwhile, reports continue to circulate about Cantor Fitzgerald's interest in setting up here.

Reports have suggested that it is eyeing Dolmen and NCB. Sources suggest that Dolmen is the more likely target. Indeed, speculation last year linked Bloxham with Dolmen.

Davy and others have also had difficulties.

In its heyday, Irish stockbroking employed more than 1,000 people.

But it's become a victim of the financial crash. The Iseq in Dublin has a market value of about €50 billion – roughly the same as Lloyds Banking Group in the UK.

If Irish stockbroking were a listed company, it wouldn't attract too many buy recommendations from analysts.

Bezier's marketing skills come to Dublin

LONDON-BASED retail marketing agency Bezier has opened an account management and logistics hub in Dublin and is planning to hire 20 staff over the next two years.

Bezier Ireland is headed up by Cormac Ó Donnchú and it already counts Warner, Disney, 3 Ireland and Apple as local clients.

It is a return to his roots for Dublin-born Trevor O'Reilly, who became Bezier's chief executive last month following a restructuring of the business. Bezier employs about 950 staff in the UK.

O'Reilly previously founded Integrated Print Logistics Solutions here, which was sold to the Astron Group in 2003. Astron was subsequently sold to RR Donnelley, where O'Reilly was a senior executive.

He was also a consultant with Denis O'Brien's Digicel mobile phone company.

O'Reilly was part of a management buy-in team at Bezier in November 2009, teaming up with his former Astron colleagues David Mitchell and Alistair Stewart.

Bezier's services here will include research; shopper marketing; campaign creative; design of point-of purchase marketing material; manufacturing, fulfilment and campaign measurement.

The company estimates it will save 28,000 transport and shipping miles by locating in Ireland and establishing a network of local suppliers.

Until the Irish business was established, resources – such as pre-assembled point of sale – were imported from the UK to meet clients' needs.

O'Reilly is confident that the the Irish economy will "bounce back". "Bezier wants to be in a strong position when it does," he added.

The company has performed strongly since the management takeover.

Revenues rose last year by 13 per cent to £92 million and it is forecasting turnover of £105 million in 20011. It claims to have saved £9 million for clients in 2009.

With cost-cutting high on the agenda for most companies in Ireland, its Dublin office won't be short of inquiries.

LITTLE THINGS

RYANAIR HASsevered its connection with airport bus company Terravision, which ran vehicles from a number of bases used by the Irish airline across Europe.

The two companies appear to have had a messy parting. A High Court action was struck out on February 4th after a settlement was agreed.

Ryanair has now signed a partnership deal with ATS in Italy to run bus services. It is already operating from Milan and will offer transport from other Ryanair bases over time.

NO JOYfor former Anglo Irish Bank director Tiarnan O'Mahoney in his bid last month to get re-elected to the council of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce.

O'Mahoney had been proposed by John McGrane of Ulster Bank and Niall Feely of G4S Secure Solutions.

In his election material, O'Mahoney described himself as the founder of Colloco Capital, "specialising in providing capital/funding to the European banking sector".

Colloco is a successor to ISTC, which O'Mahoney set up in 2005 after raising €165 million from investors. The business later collapsed.

ETIHAD AIRWAYSwill today open its €1 million business lounge in Dublin airport's T2.

Its facilities include Apple Mac computers, a la carte dining, a dedicated family room with toys and a prayer room with "ablution area".