Profits up £1m at The Partners

Branding consultancy The Partners has reported a sharp increase in its pre-tax profits for 2006, up almost £1m on the previous year.

Its report and financial statements for last year, filed this week at Companies House, show a rise in pre-tax profits of £969 379 (from a loss of £330 918 in 2005 to a profit of £638 461).

The group’s turnover for 2006 also shows a marked increase, up £643 990 – 84 per cent – on 2005.

The Partners’ managing partner Jim Prior attributes the growth to a number of significant wins, better contracts and the consultancy’s focus on creativity. ‘Our creative focus and delivery has resulted in 2006 being a great year for us in terms of awards. This is central to our strategy and turnaround,’ he says.

‘Early 2005 was a difficult trading period for us and was skewed by a number of situations. As every business goes through periodically, we had a short-term blip but managed to pull out of a difficult period,’ he adds.

Although The Partners’ highest-paid director received a rise in salary, up from £131 375 to £186 670, overall staff costs, including directors, were reduced from £2.03m in 2005 to £1.67m in 2006. The figures show that the total number of staff was reduced from 36 to 30. Former director Richard Jacques resigned at the end of March 2006.

Earlier this year, the last remaining founder of The Partners, Aziz Cami, announced his plans to step down as creative chairman from the end of May. The move marked the end of a three-year management transition, which began with Prior taking over as managing partner from Cami in 2004.

Prior commented on plans to develop the consultancy’s remit beyond graphic design over the coming year, while revealing that a new product services offer is expected to launch this July, under the guidance of parent company Young & Rubicam, itself part of WPP.