Pact marches on to Leeds

UK producer trade body Pact is to open an office in the Yorkshire city of Leeds and is launching new services to help indies to grow their businesses.

John McVay

The Leeds office will house Pact’s Out of London (OoL) team by summer 2019 and will initially host two or three posts, including one that will involve travelling to production centres around the UK.

This person will report to the newly created business development and global department, led by Dawn McCarthy-Simpson.

The Leeds office will be tasked with doing more to help Pact’s OoL members grow their businesses, win more commissions and take advantage of international opportunities.

Pact will develop and launch a range of services under its new Business Accelerator and Production Accelerator strands to complement the current Export Accelerator, to which more than 300 companies are signed up.

These new services will be free for all Pact members and will focus on helping both start-ups and those who have been in business for several years and are looking to grow their businesses.

The Business Accelerator aims to equip indies with what they need to know to run and manage a better business, including access to finance, personnel issues, cash flow and attracting investment.

The Production Accelerator will help firms to improve their creative offering, better manage production processes, and to manage and exploit their IP effectively and profitably.

The aim of these new services is to help more companies get to scale more quickly and to avoid the many pitfalls that can affect small businesses, according to Pact.

Sara Geater, Pact chair, said: “The TV landscape in the UK is changing and with more original programming spend in the nations and regions, it makes absolute sense for Pact to expand its services to ensure it is able to assist its members across the whole of the UK.

“These new services show a real commitment from Pact to its members in helping them access a wealth of information and opportunities to build successful businesses.”

Pact CEO John McVay added: “We know from member feedback that there is a need for specialist help and advice for small indies to grow their businesses and, as the trade body for indies across the UK, we know we are best placed to provide this help.

“Opening up a Leeds office is a natural step given the way in which the market is travelling, and we look forward to engaging more with our members across the UK.”

The move follows commercially funded public broadcaster Channel 4’s decision to set up a new national headquarters in Leeds last year.