Haleys undergoes facelift and mulls move into Middle East

Haley Somerset Consulting is expecting to report profits almost eight times higher than last year’s after overhauling the business and re-branding.

Managing director and co-founder Steve Haley said pre-tax profit for the year to June 2005 would be around £400,000, compared to £53,162 for the same period the previous year. Turnover would reach £7.1m, compared to the previous year’s £6.8m. The figures signal a turnaround for the company, which posted a loss of £343,717 for the year to June 2003.

He has renamed the firm Haleys to reflect the departure of co-founder David Somerset, who left early this year, closely followed by another director, Mark Diviani, who left in April. The firm made “eight or nine” redundancies at lower levels, according to Haley.

Haley said: “Two of our directors stepped down, but we were slightly top heavy and we wanted to get lean and mean.”

Haleys has also retrenched in the UK. It has closed its Hong Kong office and will no longer work in Australia and France. Haley said: “95% of our work is now in the UK. Hong Kong was proving difficult. We had four or five people there and found that the office wasn’t big enough to be profitable. It was either a case of going up to the next level or getting out.”

However, Haley said he was considering setting up shop in Dubai, where a number of his existing clients do business. “We are conducting a feasibility study looking at whether we should set up an office out there,” he said.

Hong Kong was proving difficult. We had 4 or 5 people there and found the office wasn’t profitable.

Steve Haley

Four Haleys staff have been promoted: Chris Haley, Steve Haley’s son, and Daren Wilson have been made associates, Garry Julyan, associate director and Rob Simmons, managing surveyor.

Haley said: “We only made a slight profit last year, but that’s because we put all the bad news into last year. We have now restructured, slimmed down the board and made eight or nine redundancies at below senior level. We are now very busy and looking to grow organically.”

The company, which employs 125 staff across eight offices in the UK, has been restructured into two groups: cost construction services and engineering cost management, which split into regional departments.

Haleys is currently working on a £500m project for Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry.