From Kitchen Table to Top Table
LS Productions are currently rounding off an incredible June, having been listed on the FEBE Growth 100 and the Sunday Times 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies at positions five and 88 respectively. Both lists celebrate British business at its best – highlighting founders that are driving their companies to deliver significant sales, revenue and profit, against a backdrop of unprecedented economic challenges.
Speaking about the recognition, CEO and founder Marie Owen said, "I’m beyond thrilled to see LS Productions name appear on such prestigious lists, in fact I can’t quite believe it. If you could have told me that we’d be appearing on lists like these when I started the business back in 2006 from my kitchen table I’d probably have laughed and said ‘are you joking’. It’s such a fantastic achievement and so rewarding to see all the incredible hard work and dedication that myself and the team have put in to get recognised. Both in terms of growing a world-class global production company, but also a business that people genuinely love working for that is firmly rooted in the values of kindness, hard work and learning."
With their headquarters in Edinburgh, LS Productions are the UK's largest production service company with additional offices in London and Manchester. LS’s recent growth is down in part to the expansion of their services into the international film & TV sectors, taking on global TV and film production service projects over the last 18 months, with recent projects including Ghosted (Skydance / Apple TV), episodes of the Bachelor (NZK Productions / Warner Bros Entertainment / ABC) and a Kind of Spark (9Story / CBBC / BYUtv America). As part of this growth they have also added a warm water production and location facility in Malta to further bolster their international offering.
In conjunction with this expansion, the LS growth can also be directly attributed to a commitment to invest in and recruit talent in the LS’s core production specialisms, including commercials, fashion, music and sport. The diversification of these business streams was a deliberate move by the business to weather the storm faced by the production industry in a post Covid landscape. Across this period LS have worked on a succession of high profile service production projects ranging from Ed Sheeran’s latest album Subtract (Freenjoy / Directed by Mia Barnes), Harry Styles ‘Adore You (Freenjoy / directed by Dave Meyers), Valentino’s Pink Dreams starring Zendaya (Marcell Rev / Michael Bailey Gates) and ‘You're Up’ featuring Cristiano Ronaldo for Nike (Wieden & Kennedy/ Directed by Megaforce).
Not only this but Covid also provided cause for reflection about where the business saw itself creatively in the long term and how they could look to continue to stay true to their values of being ‘creative at heart’ which drove further diversification with the arrival of an original content arm in the form of LS Films.
As Marie summarises below, "Post Covid we had to completely re-evaluate where we wanted to go - not just professionally but personally. So we went, quite literally back to our roots - which meant investing heavily in specialised expertise to develop focus business streams; Fashion, Sport, Commercial, Music Videos, Film & TV Service and an original content division called LS Films. This robust diversification gives LS a solid foundation in an industry that is notorious for huge highs and steep lows because we're not overly dependent on one particular stream and it also allows us to explore our creative passion with LS Films."
The full 100 ranking can be viewed here.
