Old soldiers never die … and veteran IT staff agency, project shop, and ex-Holway Boring Award winner, Triad is living proof. Now in its 104th year (or so it seems), Triad continues a graceful decline which has seen revenues nearly halve over the past five (mostly loss-making) years.
And so we arrive at FY13, in which Triad's revenues (to 31st March) fell a further 3%, to £18.9m. Triad reported an operating profit of £138k, but this was only because of a cheeky reassessment of the economic working life of home-grown 'location intelligence' IP, Zubed (see Will Zubed help Triad find its way?). Zubed was put on life support for a further five years and in so doing reduced the year's amortisation charge by £171k. Triad's consulting division, which provides palliative care for Zubed, lost money anyway, though this was primarily due to that nefarious project shop ailment, sticky bench disease.
But when all's said and done, Triad earns enough money to pay its people. In fairness, founding executive chairman John Rigg only draws £25k salary while he assumedly waits for a time that his 4.5m shares are once again worth considerably more than the 6p level at which they currently languish.