Continuing its seemingly endless war of (revenue) attrition (see Triad soldiers on), veteran IT staff agency, project shop and geographic information software business Triad is sinking deeper into the mire. Half-time results (to 30th Sept.) do not make pretty reading, with net losses deepening from £151k to £199k on a 6% revenue decline to £9.17m. It’s the usual story, with delayed contracts and pricing pressure contributing to an 80bps squeeze on gross margins down to 13.7%. All this resulted in a net drain on operating cash flow to the tune of £414k, vs a £439k operating cash inflow in H1 2012.
Although executive chairman John Rigg sees signs of business improvement, it’s hard to take much cheer from the underlying trends. But there is surely life in the old dog yet – at least investors seem to think so. Triad’s share price has staged a remarkable recovery since FY results in June – from 6.5p to 16p. Indeed Rigg was moved to issue a ‘no idea why’ stock market notice a month ago. So, battle-weary Triad trundles on, bowed but not beaten.