Stanley Productions Ceases Trading
*** UPDATE – The Stanley Productions brand has been acquired by The Television Set Ltd. A great Soho stalwart lives on, though sadly the Wardour Street shop is no more.***
Stanley Productions was incorporated over 35 years ago, and on the 5th of July 2013 went into liquidation, closing a chapter in the history of tape sales and duplication services in Soho, London.
Many years before I set up 10th Planet, I used to buy reel to reel tape and editing blades from Stanley’s (yes, I am that old!). The place never really changed much and despite later running a company that competed with them on some services, I always had a soft spot for the ‘building merchant’s’ style trade counter and the ‘stack em high, sell em cheap attitude’.
The closing of their doors says a lot about the market for video tapes (something we stopped selling years ago) and also the authoring and duplication industry. Selling something as cheaply is possible isn’t always the best business model. Time and time again we have had to rescue projects that clients took to Stan’s and their technical ability or print knowledge were not able to provide the quality required. We gave up matching the “DVD Authoring for £50 with menus and subtitles” quotes as we recognise that its better to charge a realistic price in order to provide a professional service than to race to the bottom.
A sad day for the industry as we lose an icon that we have all grown used to.
We will of course be more than happy to talk to any customers that require disc duplication, video transfers or authoring who are now looking for an alternative supplier please call us on 020 7434 2345.