Tessella is benefiting from its unusual focus on the area where ‘science and complexity meet IT’, reporting 9% growth in turnover to £18.5m in the year to 31 March 2012. According to its recent Annual Report, PBT declined by 14% in the same period to £271k, but without a full profit and loss account it’s hard to say whether that’s a true reflection of the privately-held business.
Overall, Tessella, which recently completed its MBO (see ‘Science powered’ Tessella completes MBO), looks to be in good shape. UK revenue increased by an impressive 20% to £13.6m and US revenue climbed by 40% to £3.6m. It was Europe and the Archiving business that let the side down. Revenue from mainland Europe fell by 57% to £1.3m, reflecting delayed projects and budget reductions at European Public Sector bodies as well as a refocusing of the Archiving business away from a traditional licence model to SaaS.
Tessella’s other industry-focused business units performed well. Energy was the star of the show growing turnover by 62% to £4.7m. But Government, Space and Defence put in a creditable performance in difficult markets increasing revenue by over 5% to £3.9m and signing some significant new clients, including an office of Her Majesty’s Treasury.
Although demand has mostly remained strong over the last year, the decline in its European business shows there is no room for complacency. Tessella’s new management team is confident of continued organic growth though and it will be sharpening its sector and client focus, expanding the US business and putting more focus on high-end services such as consulting in its drive to make FY12/13 another ‘record year’.