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Spitfire business things

Trash Panda said:
When half of your leadership cares more about the carnival barking than the circus itself, what can you expect? See the Crow Hill theatrics as the latest example. This is what happens when you try to sell a tool as an experience. Thankfully, when it comes to Spitfire, those days seem to have come to a close as market realities set in and the pageantry takes a back seat to more important things.
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But I’m the other hand, look at how many people have said that since CH left, the creativity and community and passion have changed for SF. A lot of people like a good face for the company. Yes it is sometimes extreme marketing. But let’s be honest. They did what they needed to and they knew it would work, and despite the overly vocal minority that is VI-Control (we are just a small part of their audience, and probably the most vocally critical part of their audience, who pay closer attention than most customers), Spitfire was and is pretty highly regarded. So they have done quite a bit right.

Is it really a plus that they have out those days behind them? Were we all so gullible that we couldn’t see through the extreme parts of their messaging and realize that those who were faces if the company absolutely had a passion for their own products? I would much rather have passionate faces laced in marketing than no marketing and faces that can’t be bothered to love their own product.

I think Paul Thompson still has that passion, though he expresses it differently. He’s more reserved. Let’s hope he stays and continues to love what he does regardless of the marketing departments messaging.

Brent
 
Trash Panda said:
When half of your leadership cares more about the carnival barking than the circus itself, what can you expect? See the Crow Hill theatrics as the latest example. This is what happens when you try to sell a tool as an experience. Thankfully, when it comes to Spitfire, those days seem to have come to a close as market realities set in and the pageantry takes a back seat to more important things.
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Are you saying their existence is at stake? But I think they still have the ARO libraries to work on? Or they already are done with & only pinning up dates & when they’re all done, say goodbye? Initially, when I was pretty new to the sample libraries, I also had this impression they were being backed up by Hans & he even talked about the company many times & I still hope he’s supporting. On the other hand, the rejoining of Christian Henderson will only make many people breathe for some time, giving the impression that it’s going nowhere but the reality is what I think their ledgers would know better than us but really hope they stand still.
 
Trash Panda said:
When half of your leadership cares more about the carnival barking than the circus itself, what can you expect? See the Crow Hill theatrics as the latest example. This is what happens when you try to sell a tool as an experience. Thankfully, when it comes to Spitfire, those days seem to have come to a close as market realities set in and the pageantry takes a back seat to more important things.
Click to expand...
The new Crow Hill library is not mere hype. I'm not sure yet if the library is fully successful in its aims, but it's certainly one of the most intriguing libraries I've tried in a long time. Just in terms of sheer joy at the keyboard, I haven't had this much fun with a library since I first opened the waves of the Arnauld Chamber Evolutions. CH has his issues, but he does know, not just how to sell a library, but even more how to frame a library for creative use, how to help people find their way into a new approach, how the tool can become a key to open new doors of artistic expression. The theatrics are a part of that I suppose, but they aren't empty, and do serve, I think, a purpose beyond selling products to people who don't need them.
 
koolkeys said:
But I’m the other hand, look at how many people have said that since CH left, the creativity and community and passion have changed for SF. A lot of people like a good face for the company. Yes it is sometimes extreme marketing. But let’s be honest. They did what they needed to and they knew it would work, and despite the overly vocal minority that is VI-Control (we are just a small part of their audience, and probably the most vocally critical part of their audience, who pay closer attention than most customers), Spitfire was and is pretty highly regarded. So they have done quite a bit right.

Is it really a plus that they have out those days behind them? Were we all so gullible that we couldn’t see through the extreme parts of their messaging and realize that those who were faces if the company absolutely had a passion for their own products? I would much rather have passionate faces laced in marketing than no marketing and faces that can’t be bothered to love their own product.

I think Paul Thompson still has that passion, though he expresses it differently. He’s more reserved. Let’s hope he stays and continues to love what he does regardless of the marketing departments messaging.

Brent
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Reserved?! He's always VERY EXCITED!:emoji_sweat_smile:
 
The Spitfire accounts have been published which gives a considerable insight. They can be found on uk companies house.

Some headline numbers:

Turnover £18.7m (2022: £21m)
Net income -£700k (2022: £1.5m)
Average monthly employees 113 (2022: 100)
Highest paid director £480k

Fairly interesting. Revenue is pretty high considering speculation about how difficult things are. Same with headcount. Seems like they're still doing pretty well.
 
sundrowned said:
The Spitfire accounts have been published which gives a considerable insight. They can be found on uk companies house.

Some headline numbers:

Turnover £18.7m (2022: £21m)
Net income -£700k (2022: £1.5m)
Average monthly employees 113 (2022: 100)
Highest paid director £480k

Fairly interesting. Revenue is pretty high considering speculation about how difficult things are. Same with headcount. Seems like they're still doing pretty well.
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What does 'Turnover' mean?
 
Doesn't look that rosey to me. They're not going to suddenly disappear, but definitely shrinking rather than growing or holding steady. It's a shame but I fear they only have themselves to blame.

Edit: Sorry just seen the '-' in front of £700k. Is that right? That suggests revenue of 18.7m but a loss of 700k. That aint good!
 
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So gone from 1.5m profit in 2022 to nearly 800k loss in 2023. I change my stance, depending on how strong their cashflow is they could very well be in trouble.
 
Turnover £18.7m (2022: £21m)
Net income -£700k (2022: £1.5m)

That means they spent £18.7m - on what? I know recording orchestral libs is not cheap, but...
 
I wouldn't read too much into the "loss." Administrative Expenses went up, which tells me they spent a lot of money, which we'll probably see the results of later this year. I imagine Paul's salary is rolled into that as well. (He undoubtedly collects a salary, as well as dividends. In the U.S., they more or less require you to do that.)

Gross income for the year is only down around 11%. In a business like this, that's not a big drop off, since fluctuations are typical.

It also says they have 5.5 millions pounds in the bank, plus another couple million pounds in assets. I don't think they're scheduling the funeral just yet. ;)
 
A couple of things in the accounts struck me.

1) There is exceptional item of over £500,000 regarding Payroll and Consultancy on restructure, so maybe this relates to CH departure? However, with CH being a major shareholder I would think he would be due much more, so perhaps the exceptional item is a part payment with more to follow?

2) The company seems to have made a £1.4m loss on “derivatives”, where as in the previous year it was a £300k profit!
 
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