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Screen International (13/Mar/1982) - Profile: Filmbond

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One of the current success stories of the British film industry is housed in the unlikely setting of an industrial estate just three miles from the runways at London's Heathrow Airport.

There, Filmbond, Britain's only bonded warehouse for film and video storage and distribution, has been functioning quietly and effectively since it first opened a little over a year ago.

But, along with its affiliates, Fleetfilm and PDS Services, it has now grown to such an extent that its genial managing director. Bill Ingram, confidently predicts that by this time next year, Ihe operation will be firmly established with a second 12,000 foot facility.

Filmbond was the realisation of a long dream of Arthur Abeles, presently chairman of Filmmarketeers and ex-Warners and CIC, and Sam Shorr, ex-Universal.

For Ingram, this present combination of technical marketing expertise seems almost a logical progression in a career that saw him start as a clerk in the booking department of Warners, UK.

Eventually rising to technical manager with Warner Pathe, he then moved on to become European service manager with Universal thence international service manager with CIC.

This led to the managing directorship of Technicolor in the UK with a final stopping off point before Filmbond as president of Introvision Programming in Los Angeles.

Ingram now presides over a 22-strong staff behind a modest, security-tight facade. Actually it should be 22 plus one.

That "one" is the unassuming Herbie, an IBM computer around which, Ingram says, the whole business revolves. A press of the button not only provides a customer and customs inventory but also instant access to information about what can total around half a million cans of material ranged on the £75,000 racks in the warehouse behind Ingram's office.

Also in the warehouse are the paraphernalia of the sister services. Fleetfilm has run parallel to Filmbond and is now responsible for around 1500 film transport movements a year.

PDS (or Producer Distributor Services) is seeing everything from the repair of all Columbia-EMI-Warner and 20th Fox (UK) 16mm print repair to trailer censorship via such mundane matters as the preparing and securing of trade show prints and checking print approval.

And this week, a new service is being established which will see the opening of an office at Pinewood studios. There, Filmbond will be at the service of producers, if required, to liaise on any matters. "We'll even book their holidays if they want," says Ingram.

The only real surprise about the success of Filmbond is the belatedness of such a clever concept. Film has been coming in and out of the country for years, inevitably tangling with extensive customs bureaucracy.

The point about the "bonded" system is that until film and video becomes a commercial going-concern in the UK it can, provided the necessary supervision is provided, remain free of duty.

Security is, of course, the watchword of the operation — from the moment film or video arrives at the warehouse to the moment it departs in locked vans.

The security aspect becomes all the more pertinent in view of weight of video handled by Filmbond. It now accounts for around a third of all the company's business, a fact which astonishes and delights Ingram.

"We're selling security; we're selling professionalism. It's a one-stop operation that is, I'm pleased to say, expanding all the time."

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