Tribal Group profits fall

The company said it had now completed the restructuring, and management had been strengthened at group and divisional level.

Strone Macpherson, chairman of Tribal Group, said of the result, for the year to 31 March 2005: “This was a challenging year for the Group, with significant organisational change which, as anticipated, affected margins adversely.”

The operating profit of Tribal Consulting, the consultancy and professional support services for the Group, declined from £7.1m last year to £6.6m in 2005, a decrease of six per cent. The firm put this down to higher costs due to skills shortage and a drop in work in the healthcare sector. The report, released on Tuesday, added: “Areas of under-performance were addressed and margins across the division improved in the second half of the year.”

Chief executive Henry Pitman said the firm generally saw big opportunities in the public sector, such as the Building School for the Future programme and the Gershon review to cut costs across government departments. He added: “We are starting to see opportunities to increase our presence in the private sector as we transfer and apply skills that we have developed in the public sector.”