Rental and technical support services, mainly for the broadcast market.
Rental services and selected sales of camera, video, wireless communication and audio equipment, including engineering support for the film and TV programme production markets.
Divisional Report
Taken from the Annual Report 2008
Overview
The Broadcast Services division provides rental equipment and technical support for the most demanding broadcast productions, mostly in the US, from a network of nine depots. The division also acts as an integrator/dealer for high end audio equipment, resells used equipment and provides comprehensive maintenance and fibre optic installation services.
Strategy
Customers choose Bexel because of their reputation for designing creative solutions, providing service excellence and because of its nationwide US network. With the most relevant equipment and the best technical backup, Bexel will continue to seek longer term contracts from customers who want more than simple equipment hire, by offering the most in-demand equipment and innovative technical solutions and support.
2008 performance
Reported revenue of £29.3 million was up 10% (2007: £26.7 million). Revenue in US Dollars increased by 1%. Bexel benefited from its successful involvement in the coverage of the Beijing Olympics and the US presidential elections. However, their contributions were largely negated by a further weakening in the general US broadcast rentals market.
In 2008 Bexel benefited from supporting the Olympics broadcasters, including the host broadcaster, BOB (Beijing Olympic Broadcasting) and our highly acclaimed Hercules flypack provided outstanding HD images of the aquatic events from the iconic Water Cube for NBC Sports. Bexel supported the Republican and Democratic national conventions with fibre optic transmission links along with video and audio systems.
The business continued to deliver leading edge technology solutions to its customers, which this year included work on the Hell's Kitchen reality TV series for Fox and the new Jonas Brothers 3D movie for Disney, audio support for the first ever in-flight concert for the Grammy Awards and a brand new mobile edit vehicle provided to Turner for the NASCAR season. Our fibre business provided infrastructure for the Superbowl XLII in Arizona and the Papal visit to Yankee Stadium, Audio sales made great progress with its Calrec dealership and our resale business was able to sell on all of our anticipated Olympics and other surplus rental gear.
However, despite its strong performance in big events, sports and high end reality programming, the general US broadcast rentals market weakened further, leading to the relatively flat year-on-year sales performance set out above.
Market developments
In the first two months of 2009 we estimate sales revenue (in Dollars) will be some 10% behind the same period of 2008. In January 2009, in the light of the continued weakness of the US broadcast rentals market, the closure of Bexel's Orlando office was announced, together with a number of other redundancies. Bexel continues to operate at nine locations, including its main Florida depot in Miami.
| 2008 | 2007 | |
| Revenue | £29.3m | £26.7m |
| Operating profit* | £1.1m | £1.6m |
| Operating margin* | 3.8% | 6.0% |
Divisional summaries for previous years can be found under each Annual Report in the reports archive.
