UK post house The Farm is close to sealing a move to the US, with a deal to buy an existing LA facility expected to close within a week.

Joint managing director Nicky Sargent, who will oversee the move, told Broadcast it was part of the firm’s longstanding expansion plans.

“We’re expecting to move out there at the end of the year,” she said. “We’ve been looking at how to grow for a while, and opening in LA is a result of that. We have a lot of contacts there, and the business [that The Farm is poised to buy] has its own existing contracts.”

In preparation for the move, The Farm last week sold hire firm Rent and crewing company Eurocrew Worldwide to Pro Motion hire. The vacant space in the Farm’s Soho building will be used as a data hub to allow images to be sent between LA and London.

Sargent declined to provide specific details about the facility that The Farm is in talks with, except that it currently works on programmes for the US broadcast market.

She said that with few US post houses offering editing, grading and sound in one facility, there is a gap in the market. “Our experience offering all three would be unique and should translate well,” added Sargent.

The Farm denied that the US had any links with Fremantle programmes, such as The X Factor, launching in the US. “This is not to supply any particular programme, it is simply to try and attract more work,” said Sargent.

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