Hire, events and post facility Metro Broadcast is looking to spend an estimated£2.5m on a new Soho facility in a bid to expand its broadcast post-production business and reposition itself in the market.
Hire, events and post facility Metro Broadcast is looking to spend an estimated £2.5m on a new Soho facility in a bid to expand its broadcast post-production business and reposition itself in the market.

The WPP-owned company, which has offices in London and Scotland, plans to double in size over the next three years. It is also investing £200,000 in new equipment including upgrading its Avid kit to HD and acquiring a Sony HDCam SR and Sony lenses for its hire division.

Metro chief executive Peter Wright explained that he wanted to shift the post division from 'the low end to the mid or high-end of the market.'

Metro has also poached Danny Whybrow, managing director of VTR subsidiary Blue, to head its Great Chapel Street facility, starting in August. Simon Briggs, managing director of Blue's sister company, graphics outfit The Hive, is expected to step into Whybrow's shoes while Simon Huhtala, managing director of Clear - VTR's newly acquired visual effects company - looks set to oversee The Hive and Clear.

Metro's group business development director, Paul Beale, said that its new emphasis on post and events would allow the company to move away from the perception of it as a 'box-shifter' that simply offers duplication and rental services in the broadcast and corporate sectors.

The company's Waterloo-based hire outfit, which houses half of Metro's estimated 160 staff is also set to move from its 15,000sq ft premises to a larger site.

Metro's recent projects include the shoot to post and graphics for Endemol's Totally Frank.

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