Gullane Entertainment
In September 2000, with the negative reception and box-office failure of Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Britt Allcroft stepped down as the company's CEO, and under new leadership, the company announced they would be renamed Gullane Entertainment in order to expand and export their brands worldwide.[15] Allcroft would however, remain as a creative consultant for the Thomas the Tank Engine franchise (which would be renamed Thomas & Friends within the same year) up until Season 7 in 2003.[16]
Within the announcement of the name change came some new projects, including a new series of Thomas & Friends, an online platform (Planet Gullane), a new series of Art Attack alongside the production of 238 episodes for the international market in a partnership with The Walt Disney Company, a second series of Sooty Heights alongside the production of direct-to-video Sooty material and new seasons of Captain Pugwash, ZZZAP! and It's a Mystery. Gullane also announced production of a full series of Eckhart with Catalyst Entertainment.[17]
In October 2000, Gullane announced to set aside US$50 million to fund a year's worth of productions, including new Thomas-related projects and television movies (which never materialised), with one being a co-production with French company Tele Images for Animal Planet.[18]
In January 2001, Gullane announced they had purchased David & Charles Children's Books for £1.1 Million, putting two new franchises: Zippy Dinosaurs and Vroom Vroom, into Gullane's properties.[19]
In March 2001, Gullane announced their profits for the last six months went up 80%. On the same day, the company announced they would produce 26 new episodes of Thomas & Friends for a Summer 2002 delivery, with a co-funding deal with a third party being allowed to coincide with the series' cost at a possible range of 78 new episodes by the next three years. On the same day, Gullane confirmed that Thomas and the Magic Railroad had been sold in over thirty countries worldwide, while Catalyst Entertainment delivered the first series of Eckhart and Longhouse Tales to the company. Earlier on, Gullane announced work on a 2D/3D animated co-production with Catalyst based on the fellow David & Charles book Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs called Sammy and the Dinosaurs which the company would distribute worldwide.[20]
In July 2001, Gullane purchased Guinness World Records for £45.5 Million from their original owners Diageo, although Gullane would continue to license the Guinness brand name from Diageo.[21] By December 2001, the company planned to produce new GWR-themed programming at a young male demographic, and that the publishing division had merged with Dave & Charles Children's Books to form Gullane Publishing.[22]
On 14 September 2001, Gullane signed a distribution deal with Tell-Tale Productions for the production of two new shows, called Ella, and Sprogs.[23]
In November 2001, Gullane was reportedly in talks to buy the entertainment assets of Canadian company CINAR, which had been affected by a financial scandal. However, those talks had fallen through due to either a failure to secure sufficient funding or in-fighting within CINAR's board of directors.[24]
In December 2001, Gullane purchased a majority stake in Fireman Sam from S4C International for £16 Million, with both companies agreeing to both produce a new season of 26 episodes and to remaster the previous 4 seasons.[25]
On February 13, 2002, Catalyst Entertainment announced that they had merged with fellow Canadian media company Cambium Entertainment to form CCI Entertainment Ltd. (Cambium Catalyst International) The merger allowed Gullane to achieve economies of scale and add clarity to their operating profile and added Cambium Entertainment's properties into their now-300-hours worth of programming. Gullane owned a 32% non-voting, 19% voting, interest in the newly enlarged business, and would continue to operate as Gullane's Canadian affiliate and distributor.[26][27]
On 8 March 2002, Gullane signed a co-production, distribution, and global licensing deal with Collingwood O'Hare Entertainment for the production of a new series titled Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!, which had been pre-sold to CITV.[28] On 20 March, the company announced 208 new episodes of Art Attack for the European and Latin American markets, alongside 78 new episodes of Thomas & Friends.[29] Gullane had also started remastering the 1974 series of Captain Pugwash around this time.
