Who are 101 Films?
Well the clue with 101 films was that they are mostly releasing former ADV films titles. ADV films was for a while the largest anime distributor in the UK, distributing 650,000 DVDs (over the course of many years) before the spectacular implosion of its American parent in 2009. Shortly before its parent’s implosion, ADV closed its UK branch in favour of a deal to distribute its back catalogue (and future releases) through Lace Digital Media Services (LDMS), thus reducing ADVs risk in the UK market. It was an attempt to save money, which did not unfortunately save ADV in its native USA. Lamentably, a lot of the back catalogue has been difficult to find in the UK recently because during the London Riots someone torched the Sony DADC warehouse in Enfield. This was where all their stock was stored as well as the back catalogues of fellow distributors Beez and Revelation Films. At the time commentator Jonathan Clements suggested in Neo (edition 90) that it might be great for the many anime distributors affected, as they could claim insurance money for DVDs they might not have otherwise been able to sell. Of course equally with the duff titles there were also some of the most popular titles in the UK. These titles have already been through the expensive BBFC approval process making them ripe for a cheap re-release. So given the common ADV Films heritage are the companies LDMS and 101 Films linked?
An investigation of 101 Films accounts finds that it has only filed abbreviated accounts (small companies in the UK still have to file accounts but much of the detail is removed to reduce the administrative burden on small companies), reducing the ability to trace who owns what. However, a look at the annual return (all companies submit an annual return annually showing who owns the company and the key directors, it is publicly available for a small fee) shows a common address and director, Adam Smith Lacey. Additionally, through the annual returns you can trace both companies through to their ultimate holding company, Lace Holdings Limited. In other words LDMS and 101 Films are pretty much one and the same. The fact that all 101 Films releases still bare the name of ADV films on the covers, suggests that the re-release of these items dates to the original agreement with ADV films (dating to when ADV left the UK). This would have likely specified that as part of its terms and conditions that it keeps the ADV name alive in the UK for marketing reasons.
So what is the future for 101 Films? Some of the ADV back catalogue has ended up with other distributors; Pumpkin Scissors is now with MVM Entertainment and Hellsing is now with Manga Entertainment. Other lisences have likely expired such as Neon Genesis Evangelion (by far ADVs biggest seller), which is rumoured to be actively suppressed by its Japanese owner help sales of the newer movie editions. However, there were plenty of other ADV films titles that made it into the UK and some of them might still have rights residing with LDMS.
Who are Anime Limited?
Anime Ltd has been more difficult to track down, here’s what we know. Originally, the company was a consultancy for one Andrew Partridge, who on foundation was the only shareholder and the only director. Andrew Partridge has had a long history with anime in the UK, starting as a website editor (The venerable ukanime.com, sadly now defunct), he became the UK voice for Beez (French subsidiary of the Japanese Bandai conglomerate, now defunct), then the face of Kaze (a French subsidiary of Japanese/American firm Viz Media, which still releases in the UK) and on the side he runs the Scotland Loves Animation charity. The attachment of one of the biggest names in UK distribution has no doubt helped Anime Limited as personal contacts are very important in the media especially when dealing with Japanese companies, never underestimate the usefulness of a familiar face! This has no doubt helped with the acquisition of some really top marquee titles such as Cowboy Bebop.
The question is where is the money coming from? The company started as a distributor in Dec 2012 and began licensing a large number of shows but didn’t make a release till June 7th with the launch of 009 Re:Cyborg. That is enough time to create a big cashflow issue for any small company. Paying for licences, authoring DVDs, designing packaging, marketing, etc all costs money but no money flowed into the company till the 7th June (in reality creditors like DVD stores or online video stores won’t normally pay you for at least another 2 months, meaning they may not have even been paid for this now!). So it is not uncommon for a small company to require a source of finance to tide it over during this small period.
The source of the money is difficult to ascertain but I do suspect that from having met Andrew Partridge, he probably does not have the money himself (or if he does he probably wouldn’t want to risk it all given his young age). I therefore suspect that there is another entity which has invested in Anime Ltd besides Andrew Partridge.
There are 2 main ways a company can gain cash. One is through a loan. For a small company like Anime Limited the only likely source of loan funding is a bank loan, remortgaging Andrews house or a loan from a richer member of the family. Assuming that a family loan or remortgaging is not an option we’ll explore bank loans. The advantage of a loan, is that you don’t give up any control over the company, Andrew Partridge could run the company as he sees fit as long as he keeps up with his repayment schedule. Even better the rate of payment to the bank is lower than the rate of return an investor will expect through the equity method (see below). The disadvantage of loans is that the banker always gets paid in preference to other investors when the interest is due, to the point that bank loan repayments can often make a company go bust. But the major disadvantage is that this type of loan is always difficult for a small company to obtain and doubly so right now during a credit crunch.
The second method of funding is through equity by selling shares in the company. The advantage this is that there is no obligation to pay a dividend to the investors (in fact often if you have no profits it’s illegal to anyway). Additionally there are also more varied supplies of investors for equity to a small company, whether venture capitalists, angel funds, British Universities (your University can be an important source of funds, remember that if you ever start a business while at Uni), UK based DVD suppliers looking to sell anime or even foreign anime firms looking to break into the UK markets. The disadvantage of equity is that you cede some control of your company to the shareholder and although there is no obligation to pay them it is assumed that the investor will want a bigger rate of return than debt either through dividends or a later sale at a profit to a 3rd party. However, equity is the most likely source of funding for a company of Anime Ltds size and profile.
NB. As an aside there are more complications to equity and debt involving tax, which I won’t go into for the sake of boring my one reader even more than I already have.
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