Rain Post will open in London in four weeks time as the first phase of a projected £10m investment that could also include facilities in Manchester, the US and Canada.

Indian media and entertainment group High Ground Enterprises, together with a group of unnamed US investors, is funding Rain Post.

It will be led by Vaughn Mullady, one of the co-founders of film-processing firm ILab.

“London is the first stage and we’re looking at setting up another Rain Post facility at MediaCityUK,” said Mullady.

“Some significant conversations have taken place and it looks like we will have a presence in Manchester.”

The 4,500 sq ft Soho facility will be based on Lower James Street and house up to 25 staff. It will target low- to medium-end feature films, TV broadcast, short-form broadcast and corporate work.

Mullady said Rain would attract clients through talent and competitive rates.

“By purchasing equipment outright, we have greater flexibility on rates,” he said.

Several former Pepper Post employees have taken on key roles at the company, including former senior grader John Claude, who has been recruited as director of grading. He is currently overseeing the installation of two Baselight grading suites at the facility.

Rain has hired another former Pepper employee, Johnathan Rush, as a re-recording mixer, while Pepper colleague Nick Foley has taken on the role of ADR mixer.

Mullady said the demise of Pepper, which was put into insolvent liquidation last month, was unfortunate but provided Rain with an opportunity to recruit “top-class talent”.

He added: “Pepper was predominantly involved in TV broadcast work, which is not Rain’s only focus. You need to spread bet, so the concentration at Rain Post will be different to Pepper.”

A Munro Acoustics-designed audio studio will be equipped with an AMS Neve DFC mixing console and will be capable of performing the final mix for TV and trailer work, and up to final mix for feature films.

Topics