Wallace & Gromit animators Aardman nearly trebled pre-tax profits from £703,000 to £1.9m in the year to December 2010, according to the latest accounts released by the Bristol-based company’s parent, Aardman Holdings.
Turnover climbed from £31.8m to £53.5m with its TV commercial division enjoying the best sales for a decade.
Aardman also benefited from having two major films in production: Arthur Christmas is due out next month while Pirates will be released early next year. Its deal with Sony to produce full-length movies means the studio giant puts up money in advance to finance production which is counted as turnover in Aardman accounts.
The Bristol animator is also reported to have a good line-up of programme commissions including Shaun the Sheep 2.