Animation and special effects firm collapses into administration
A firm which specialises in animation and special effects studio has collapsed into administration.
Axis, which has its head office in Scotland, ran its special effects division at the Bottle Yard Studios in Bristol.
The company has gone into administration after struggling with labour costs and severe cash flow problems.
Axis worked with major film and TV companies including Netflix, Sky and HBO on a series of projects including the Emmy award-winning series Chernobyl; Catherine the Great starring Helen Mirren; and Aardman’s A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon.
Alistair McAlinden and Geoff Jacobs of Interpath Advisory have been appointed joint administrators of Axis Productions and Axis VFX, both trading as Axis Studios.
All the company’s 166 staff have been made redundant, although a small number will be retained by the administrators to assist with the winding down of the business.
As a result the company has ceased production of all of its projects with immediate effect.
The administrators have said they are seeking operators to continue with the live projects.
Mr McAlinden said: “Axis has been a studio of choice for key production companies and has produced content for household names such as the BBC, Netflix and Blizzard Entertainment.
“The company experienced a high demand for its services during Covid as animation and visual effects for TV, film and videogames skyrocketed.
“Unfortunately, however, Axis has more recently been impacted by a decline in customer projects, as well as increases in labour costs which have resulted in severe cash flow problems. The directors worked tirelessly to explore alternative solutions, but ultimately had to take the difficult decision to seek the appointment of administrators.”
Mr Jacobs, added: “Our priority is to give employees support in the first instance. We would encourage any party with an interest in Axis’ live projects to contact us immediately.”
