News In Focus

Growth in revenue but not profit at Gillespie Macandrew

25 September 2012

Law firm Gillespie Macandrew has reported increased revenue but a slight dip in profit for its financial year 2011-12.

Turnover was up 8.5% to £9.77m, but operating profit was £2.65m compared with the previous year's £2.7m, with an average profit for the 22 partners of £120,000.

The previous year saw 2% revenue growth and stable profit.

The firm has recently opened a Perth office, and managing partner Ian Turnbull said it would continue its strategy of reshaping its business to focus on core areas such as land and rural business.

Describing the results as "another encouraging year for the firm during testing market conditions", Mr Turnbull said commercial property had returned a 39% increase in turnover, in part reflecting the expanded housebuilder and construction team and a strong performance from the energy team; and land and rural business was up by 32%.

He added: “In spite of the challenging economic conditions, our corporate service line has shown a 13% increase in its turnover, demonstrating that although deal activity remains sporadic, good quality service is still in demand. Private client and dispute resolution & litigation have both maintained the same turnover performance level as the past year, and the only area that has shown a decline is residential property, where the ongoing restriction on mortgage lending continues to choke resurgence in the market place.

“Overall, I believe these results represent a reasonable achievement given the ongoing restructuring that we have undertaken over the past 12 months.”