Jobs set to go at film software firm
Film software company Vista Group has announced an unspecified number of redundancies as cinemas continue to struggle with Covid-19 restrictions.
The company, which has about 400 staff in New Zealand and 600 globally, yesterday told the NZX that it had begun consulting with staff around a new slimmed-down version of the company.
‘‘We are operating in a situation where we do not know when our customers (80 per cent-plus of Vista Group customers are cinemas) will be able to reopen in a meaningful way,’’ Vista Group chief executive Kimbal Riley said.
‘‘This has had, and continues to have, a significant impact on their businesses – and therefore ours.
‘‘It is also clear that our customers’ businesses will change when they do reopen, and so Vista Group will need to change in order to address their new needs, and position ourselves optimally to ‘enhance the moviegoer experience’ in whatever a ‘new normal’ looks like postCovid-19.’’
Riley did not say how many job losses may occur but if the proposal went ahead, it was expected to save between $12 million and $15m.
Vista recently completed a $65m capital raise, and has taken wage subsidies in New Zealand and the US, but Riley said government assistance was only paying about a third of its New Zealand wage bill.
Staff and directors had taken pay or fee cuts, with staff down to 80 per cent of their regular wages on reduced hours.
‘‘We do not believe it is right to require our people to reduce their hours and income for an unquantified, but potentially extended, period,’’ Riley said.
Despite its difficulties, the group has come up with ways to help cinemas to reopen and has won new business during the pandemic, mostly in Europe. Innovations included a ‘‘cinema reopening kit’’ with social distancing seating capability, which was in use in cinemas in Texas.
Cinemas in most countries remained closed and those that were open had been required to reduce capacity, distance moviegoers, and generally did not have new content to show because studio releases had stalled, Riley said.
Vista’s marketing arm had launched a project focused on increased self-service and capability for studios, and Vista was working with American cinemas to reconfigure their mobile apps to enable customers to buy popcorn and other items through kerb-side pickup.
It had also partnered with Kiwi company Shift72 to let cinemas launch their own TVOD (Transactional Video on Demand) platforms.