Model employer

Miles Bullough of Wallace and Gromit creators Aardman Animations on the pressure to move jobs abroad

Shaun the Sheep is at the meeting too. I walk into the office of Miles Bullough, head of broadcast at Aardman Animations, and find him sitting opposite a four-foot model of the ovine superstar. I’m offered a seat, and an assistant comes in with refreshments. Tea for me, coffee for Bullough. Nothing for Shaun, whose sombre and kindly face is poised inquisitively over my tape-recorder.

‘Shaun was the star of A Close Shave,’ Bullough tells me, ‘which was Nick Park’s third film. [It was also the third film to feature perhaps Aardman’s most famous characters, Wallace and Gromit.] That was a breakthrough moment for Aardman as a studio. It was the beginning of our huge merchandising and licensing business.’ He and his company are rightly proud of the woolly hero, whose image is on display throughout their vast, swish, open-plan headquarters in Bristol. The spin-off TV series is seen in 180 countries around the world. So who’s missing out? ‘Some islands somewhere, I guess,’ says Bullough. ‘San Marino maybe. For a while we weren’t on air in New Zealand. I couldn’t understand that unless they thought sheep were vermin.’ Don’t some New Zealanders regard sheep as sacred? ‘That’s the good thing about sheep. They’re not sacred, or offensive, to any culture. They’re just sheep.’ Bullough is a curious mixture of chucklesome whimsy and corporate steel. He has a soft crinkly face, a strange blond moustache, and a pair of thick black spectacles. He could easily pass as a children’s party entertainer. But he’s able to switch instantly from chortling wisecrackery to lists of percentages, ratios and margins. And right now he’s concerned about Aardman — which employs 600 staff and turns over £50 million a year — whose profitability is threatened by the more favourable tax regimes on offer abroad.