It has been reported that WYG has been hit by contract delays and £4m restructuring costs

It is understood that Project delays caused by the General Election has contributed to a fall in pre-tax profits at the consultant as the firm was forced to rebalance the business after gearing up for a UK work surge.

Group pre-tax profit slipped from 2.2m to £1.6m in the year to March after also booking £4m costs associated with restructuring the business in line with the strategic growth plan.

Strong growth in last year’s order book was converted into a 14% revenue rise to £152m. However, margins slipped chiefly as a result of having geared up to deliver several major programmes of work that were expected to commence in the last four months of the year but were then delayed.

Paul Hamer, chief executive officer of WYG, said that “frustratingly, it was WYG’s higher margin service lines that saw the greatest incidence of project delays.

Although the business acted quickly to reduce costs and overheads, and defer some planned investments in the final quarter, it proved impossible to make up the lost ground by the year end.”

Hamer went onto to say: “The opportunities we are seeing in our core consultancy services and international development markets, combined with our initiatives to drive efficiency and resilience across the group, leave us in a strong position from which to deliver good growth in the current year.”

Acknowledgements: Financial Times and theconstructionenquirer