Rankin Group has filed for bankruptcy this week, with the agency citing lost work due to AI and an ‘unforeseen six-figure tax bill’ as the final nails in its coffin.
Formerly known as Rankin Creative, the firm was founded five years ago by the iconic photographer, known for his portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, David Bowie and Madonna among others.
The agency will now enter into liquidation, owing its staff more than £300,000 and over £1 million more to the UK tax authorities.
Rankin is however set to continue with his lucrative photography career and production business.
According to Rankin himself, the agency did well in its first three years but subsequently suffered due to a variety of factors, including reduced budgets across the industry post-covid and lost work to AI and programmatic.
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Speaking to The Art Newspaper about his agency’s bankruptcy, Rankin said: “Rankin Group was forced into liquidation because of an unforeseen tax bill, which meant that some staff did not receive their entire redundancy payments.
“The HMRC bill came as a big shock to us when we received the demand. Up until that point, we were looking at a recovery plan or, in the worst-case scenario, a winding down. Even after the demand, I tried to work out a deal, but it was just too late.”
He continued: “Whether it was due to reduced budgets around the economy or losing work to programmatic and AI-based solutions, it was a massively challenging period for us and many other services like us,”
“In addition, the technological revolution has essentially gutted a lot of the creative services agencies delivering great non-programmatic work. Sadly, that is what we were selling: a bespoke creative service around storytelling and brand building.
“When you combined that, with the lack of face-to-face work and meetings post-covid, it’s been a perfect storm.”
