The creator of Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Morph boosted pre-tax profits by more than 60% to £3.3m last year, largely thanks to a boom at its TV commercial-making division.
Aardman Animations, which recently branched out into the US with the acquisition of animation firm Nathan Love, also reported a healthy 26% surge in turnover to £23.5m.
The 40-year-old Bristol-based firm acknowledged the performance of its commercials division which achieved its highest level of turnover since 2010.
Aardman has made campaigns in the US and UK for clients including Npower and the government’s Change4Life anti-obesity drive.
The company’s directors, co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton, each received a dividend payment of £94,956.
One of the duo – the company filing does not specify which – also received £62,755 as the un-named highest paid company director.
Operationally, the film division, which delivered the Shaun the Sheep film which premiered in February, saw revenues rise 60% year-on-year to £7.7m.
Revenue from other activities, which includes making commercials and licensing, grew 26% to £23.5m.
Over 80% of the company’s turnover comes from the UK, up on 2013, with North America generating just 10% of the work.
The broadcast division delivered 15 new one-minute episodes of Morph on YouTube, following a successful funding campaign raising half the money using crowdfunding.
The company said that a small number of projects on the broadcast development slate were written off last year.
Staff costs grew from £8.5m to £10.3m as employee numbers swelled from 204 to 246.
This was due to a big increase in “project-related freelancers” from 121 to 158.
Net funds at 31 December were £8.2m.
