Briggs departs Prime Focus as staff redundancies loom

Redundancies will follow at the Soho post outfit, with Prime Focus midway through a four-week consultation period with staff.

The company’s commercials division will face the brunt of the cuts.

The Prime Focus group managing director left the company on Tuesday, with staff informed the same day.

Last month, Prime Focus announced to the London Stock Exchange that the company’s commercials and broadcast divisions were trading “below management expectations”.

It cited a slump in TV advertising, which it linked to the London 2012 Olympics, together with downward pressure on production budgets, as reasons for the company’s poor performance.

Prime Focus said it planned to undertake “an extensive operational restructuring to reduce running costs, minimise cash burn and to insulate against rapidly emerging negative industry trends”.

Briggs joined the VTR Group in 1997 and was appointed managing director of Prime Focus London when it was acquired by Indian post firm Prime Focus in 2006.

Briggs said: “I have been with the group for 15 years and there just comes a point where you need a fresh challenge and a change.”

Bernard Kumeta, who was appointed chief executive of Prime Focus London in April after working with the company as a consultant, has taken on Briggs’ duties.