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Variety (03/Mar/1982) - London's Filmbound Services to Crack Dutch TV Warehousing

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London's Filmbound Services to Crack Dutch TV Warehousing

London, March 2.

London is challenging Amsterdam's longtime European monopoly as a "free port" storage depot for U.S. teletape suppliers. In competition with the Dutch is Film-bond Services Ltd., set up a year ago as Britain's first and only (so far) bonded film warehousing operation.

The computerized facility, owned by former Technicolor exec Bill Ingram is partnership with film sales vets Arthur Abeles and Henri Michaud, has weaned away some film business, notably key clients Warner Bros, and 20th Century-Fox, but hasn't yet had much luck with the tv trade. Viacom would be the first if current dickers work out.

As a bonded warehouse, and within hailing distance of London's Heathrow airport, Filmbond can store audiovisual material of any kind up to five years free of duty. Advantage to a client is that it only pays Her Majesty's Customs department when the stock is pulled out of the facility. Since it's the only bonded facility of its kind, non-users pay up to Customs as soon as a shipment of prints comes out of the plane.

Another choice Filmbond client is Disney, but only for print cleaning and restoration, not storage. Warner's used to operate its own warehouse (paying duty charges from the word "go" because it was not bonded), while Fox farmed out both storage and print cleaning chores.

Filmbond, whose activities also include air freighting and even complete "backroom" services for indie distribs (only one customer so far — HandMade Films), also stores master tapes and blank cassettes. With an IBM 20-terminal computer, purchased outright, outfit has instant inventory control of every shot and outtake stored in the shop, including some 20 years of Warner pre-print elements. One consequent virtue is the speed computerization offers a distrib assembling foreign-track versions.

Company got its bonded license, says Ingram, because no such facility existed here before and H.M. Customs "appreciated there was a demand for one." The suburban facility, which in its first year handled more than 1,500 shipments' in and out (worldwide), offers total electronic security' with infra-red "eyes" that detect body heat plus a direct line to the local police station, all of which constitutes what's known as a "closed warehouse" in compliance with bonding requirements.

Incidentally, most of the prints shipped in from the U.S. are second hand. That's an old practice, actually, but intensified of late because of rising print charges which in Britain alone over the past few years have gone up by 10% or more per annum. An average print here now costs around $1,200. For longies like a "Reds," they go for about $2,200 or so per copy.

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