Triad trundles back to loss

The now proverbial ‘challenging market conditions’ pushed veteran IT staff agency (ITSA), Triad, back into a £151k net loss after poking its head briefly above the profit parapet this time last year (see Tax credit pushes tenacious Triad back to black). Headline revenues for the six months to 30th Sept. rose by 2% to £9.8m but operating losses deepened from £53k to £92k. This was mainly due to pricing pressure on Triad’s core resourcing unit, knocking gross margins down from 16.2% to 14.5% on revenues up 1% to £8.5m. Operating losses at Triad’s Consulting & Solutions unit (now including ‘location intelligence’ product, Zubed – see Zubed de-buz knocks Triad profits) improved from ‑£427k to ‑£342k. Executive chairman John Rigg aims to boost margins by cross-selling consultancy into Triad’s resourcing client base, a noble objective which many other ITSAs have strived for - usually with ignoble results. But Triad has got this far this small and will undoubtedly trundle on.