TV firm Love Productions benefits – all the way to the bank

The television company which produces the controversial Channel 4 documentary Benefits Street and the BBC's hit The Great British Bake Off has seen its annual revenues leap by a third to £13m.

Love Productions said international sales soared "on the back of the ever-expanding Bake Off brand", with the show sold to 14 countries including America. Profits rose by 25 per cent to £1.4m. The accounts cover the year to March 2013, before Benefits Street had its Channel 4 debut last week.

Critics have claimed that the programme, about benefits claimants in a poor area of Birmingham, exploits some of those who appeared on camera and several dozen people staged a protest outside Love's London office yesterday. Co-owner Richard McKerrow insisted it was right for the show to be "shining a light on poverty".