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IMAGESTATE MOVES TO NEW YORK
February 8, 2002
After 9/11 we've all heard of a lot of companies moving out of New York City. Image State looked
at the opportunity and is moving in.
They are consolidating their far flung operations into the heart of Manhattan.
With its acquisitions in 2000 and 2001, ImageState has had catalog production teams in Hong
Kong, Holland, England, Seattle and New York. Now all the decisions concerning design and
production of print catalogs, CD's and what images will be placed online will be made in New
York.
In October, ImageState purchased International Stock which owned a building at 10 East 34th
Street with 21,000 sq.ft. of office space and they have moved quickly to consolidated operations
in New York.
Some production shoots will still be shot in Europe and Hong Kong, but the decisions as to what
to shoot will be controlled out of New York. RF production will be coordinated out of London.
Part of the reason for shooting overseas is that traditionally it has been easier to find
photographers outside the U.S. who are willing to agree to a buyout for the images they produce.
While Image State still wants to continue to receive work with photographers who they will pay a
royalty, Sheldon Marshall believes that for a company to be profitable it must wholly own a
significant percentage of the images it markets. In some of the catalogs Marshall produced for
VCG 30% to 40% of the images were wholly owned.
ImageState's full 2001 financial statement that will be released about the end of February and
is expected to show that the combined companies had gross sales of about $10 million in all of
2001.
During the period from 1 July 2000 to 30 June 2001 the group had sales of 3.2 million pounds
($4.53 million). It should be recognized that included in this figure are only 29 weeks of
trading for WestStock and John Foxx and 17 weeks for ICL and Zephyr because they were new
acquisitions during the year.
For 2001 ImageState will have a full year of revenue from the Adventure Photo, WestStock and
John Foxx brands, 43 weeks from ICL and Zephyr and two months from International Stock. In the
11 months to August 31, 2001, International Stock's management showed revenues of $2.5 million
and a break even EBITDA.
ImageState paid approximately 13.5 million pounds ($19 million) for John Foxx, Zepher, ICL, and
WestStock.
During the 1 July 2000 to 30 June 2001 period ImageState had a loss before taxation of
approximately 10.2 million pounds ($14.43 million). During this period the company disposed of
its investment in Invest TV and the loss includes the full write off of the company's loans to
Invest TV of 1.9 million pounds.