Photolink Creative group has acquired Hungry Tiger, one of London’s top photography and video collectives. The combined company will employ around 160 staff across its sites in Manchester, London and Mumbai.
The value of the deal has not been disclosed but Hungry Tiger’s assets were last recorded at just under £1m and its sales are believed to be around £2m.
Hungry Tiger operates out of a seven studio 16,000 sq ft complex in Fulham, west London where it employs 55 staff – almost half of whom are photographers.
Clients include M&S, Whistles, Monsoon and Accessorize.
Photolink was founded in 1977 by fashion photographer David Walter who remains the company’s controlling shareholder.
The company has its headquarters in Ardwick in Manchester where it employs 85 staff across a 35,000 sq ft site with five studios.
Clients include John Lewis, Clarks, Regis Salons, Tesco, Very, Littlewoods, Argos, Homebase and Kitbag.
David Walter
In 2008 Photolink opened a wholly-owned subsidiary in Mumbai in India which now employs 22 people. The Indian company offers creative services to the domestic Indian market and is now increasingly a creative production centre in its own right providing competitively-priced artwork services to UK and European clients out-with the Photolink group.
The client base in India includes Croma, Anand Group, Westside, GQ, Kwality Walls, PepsiCo and Conde Nast Traveller.
Photolink reported sales of £14.2m for the year ended November 2011 (a rise of £400k on the previous year) and a profit of £217k.
Commenting on the acquisition Walter said: “For more than 30 years we have grown organically, reinventing ourselves along the way to stay ahead of the game, and I’m proud of what we have achieved to date.
“We want to reach out to the luxury brands market and having a London base will allow us to do this. Hungry Tiger is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in the business with its exceptional staff and expert photographic offer that constantly delivers to an enviable client base. The time seems right to take our business to the next stage and open up new opportunities in this highly competitive sector.”
