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Michael Kao saw no reason for change. The 61-year-old had seen his plastic Christmas tree business, Boto International Holdings, become a colossus with contracts with Wal-Mart and Target stores. However his son Francis, armed with a finance degree from Sacramento University [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], realized that Boto's profits would eventually decline and the future was in computer animation.
It also helped that Target, Wal-Mart and K-Mart, who accounted for 60% of Boto's business, recently told Michael Kao that they were going to pay less money for his trees. The writing was on the wall for Boto and the industry.
"Everyone is moving up the value chain," he says. "And that's going to drive up labour costs."
"Today, if you are still doing manufacturing for Christmas trees, you die [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]," Michael says.
Despite such good fortune, Imagi isn't sitting pretty yet. It posted a $17 million loss in 2005, mainly due to an overdue tax bill. But Michael Kao isn't unhappy about ditching plastic trees. Boto International, currently owned by the Carlyle Group [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], posted a $29.3 million loss in 2005.
(Source:Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Eight years later, Imagi is working with Warner Bros. and the Weinstein Co. on the latest version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, due in the Spring of 2007. Imagi sold its American partners by telling them that the Kaos could deliver a completed film for $35 million, a fifth of what US animators would charge.
Read on
TMNT Comes to DVD
Meet the Robinsons drops to 3
Imagi hires top animators
"When I made the deal, we only saw like a minute of animation," he says. "I've seen about 45 minutes in the last couple of weeks, and I'm really pleased with what they have done."
Francis originally convinced his father to hire techs and animators to build a website to advertise the company's wares. Consumers enthusiastically logged on but sales didn't rise. However, Francis realized that digital animation was the way to go, and Imagi International was born.
This didn't mean the results weren't world-class, according to Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros. pictures.