The largest acquisition in Soho for some time was announced last week, with Evolutions purchasing Nats Post Production for an undisclosed seven-figure sum.
Evolutions has taken over the running of the Nats Soho Square and Oxford Street sites with immediate effect, with Nats Directors/Shareholders Charlie Leonard and Chris Reynolds moving swiftly on to pursue other projects. No redundancies are planned, with all of Nats’ seventy strong staff remaining in place. The new owners are also keen to point out that both companies’ clients will be unaffected by the purchase.
Evolutions and Nats both offer full post production but the acquisition will bring together a much broader mix of technology and services than either currently offer alone. With upwards of a mammoth eighty suites the purchase will make the company the largest independently-owned facility in Soho.
The four sites (Soho Square, Berners St, Oxford St and Wells St) owned by the group will continue to work as stand-alone locations with offline, online and audio capabilities at each. However, the group will now also offer a full HD service with Symphony and DS Nitris edit suites, Smoke HD graphics compositing suites, Baselight and Pogle HD Grading, a Spirit Telecine, DVD department, a dedicated design arm including 3D and a large investment in Apple Final Cut Pro. One immediate promotion will see Jo Manser, currently Head of Post Production at Nats, become Head of Post Production across the group.
Managing Director, Simon Kanjee, comments: “For some time now we have been looking for the right acquisition to provide the expansion we need to meet a growing client demand. Nats is the perfect fit, working in a similar space but in slightly different markets. Our strength in Light Entertainment will be complemented by Nats’ experience in Documentaries and Factual/Arts. We are of course looking to gain market share but the acquisition is about much more than turnover. The benefits of an increased number of suites and expanded technology base are great, but I believe the collective pool of talent is second to none. We are very excited about the coming weeks and are looking forward to the future as we continue to expand.”
