Administrators have been appointed for Technicolor Creative Studios UK, the historic visual effects studio that has shut down, with 440 redundancies.

Nick Holloway and David Pike from advisory firm Interpath were named as joint administrators to the UK Technicolor division on Monday. The Group had been facing financial challenges for some time, exacerbated by rising labor costs, as well as the long-tail impact of the 2023 writers strike which delayed projects, Interpath said in a statement.

Directors of the UK Technicolor division looked at a possible sale of refinancing of the company. But with no solvent options available, they took the difficult decision to file for the appointment of administrators, Interpath added. Administration in the UK, which is not the same as a liquidation, keeps debtors at bay while a possible rescue plan for a company, including a restructuring, is attempted. Technicolor Creative Studios UK has business units that include The Mill, MPC, Mikros Animation and Technicolor Games.

The ceasing of operations at the company means that most of Technicolors 440 employees have been made redundant, Interpath reported.

Nick Holloway, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator, said The Technicolor Group in the UK has credits that date back from the production of Disneys Pinocchio in the 1940s to more recently Ridley Scotts Prometheus.

Unfortunately, the economic headwinds which are affecting companies right across the creative industries have proved too challenging to overcome, which has led to Technicolors UK business being placed into administration today, he added.

Interpath invited those looking to acquire the assets of the UK Technicolor division as it is wound up to contact the administrators. In 2020, Technicolor went through a restructuring of its own after filing for bankruptcy.