The Pinewood Group has posted record revenues thanks to the strong performance of its film division, as the facilities group continues to struggle to find room for TV productions.

Pinewood’s results for the year to March include revenue of £75m, compared with £64.1m for the same period last year.

Operating profit rose from £4.9m last year to £5.8m in 2015.

Revenue generated by the company’s TV business, which includes studios, stages and post production services was £5.8m – a drop of £400,000 on last year. 

Pinewood said that demand from the film sector, including, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens and Bond film Spectre, had prevented it from housing TV productions over the past year.

According to Pinewood, ITV, the BBC and Sky expressed an interest in using its film stages for their large-scale light entertainment formats but the company was unable to accommodate them due to capacity constraints.

Pinewood has begun construction work on the 1m sq ft expansion of its Buckinghamshire site, which the company said should enable Pinewood to accommodate large format TV productions in the future. The first phase of the development is due for completion during the first half of 2016.

Pinewood Shepperton chief executive Ivan Dunleavy said: “Pinewood is a uniquely positioned independent operator and has once again delivered strong growth.

“As our core business has grown we have expanded the range of services for the screen-based industries. We are seeing encouraging results from this strategy. Our growing presence internationally continues to deliver clear benefits.

“Following the successful share placing in April 2015, construction has begun on the first phase of the Pinewood expansion. This is an exciting development for the Group and we are pleased with the support and commitment given to us through the placing.

“Although we have hosted the three largest film productions of the year, being Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, Avengers: Age of Ultron and the 24th Bond film Spectre, we continue to be unable to meet all the demand from large films.

“This will be partly addressed by the first phase of the Pinewood expansion.

“We are encouraged that the current financial year has got off to a strong start with good visibility into the coming year.”

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