A law firm slipped to a loss as its turnover was hit in the year it was taken over by a private equity giant that used to own ScS and Dreams.
Fletchers Solicitors, which has offices in Manchester, Southport and Leeds, was snapped up by Sun European Partners in October 2021.
Recently-published figures have confirmed the firm's turnover declined from £43.4m to £34.1m in the year to 30 April 2022.
READ MORE: Click here to sign up to the BusinessLive North West newsletter
It also went from a pre-tax profit of £5.1m to a loss of £209,459.
In a statement, the firm said the loss was "largely accounted for by transaction costs relating to the sale of the business and increased investment in growth".
However, in documents filed with Companies House, the firm revealed that a loss of a key supplier after it entered administration reduced inbound personal injury leads for the second half of the year which impacted its turnover.
The results do not include Didsbury-based customer acquisition specialist Blume which became part of the group last year after also being acquired by Sun European Partners.
Fletchers Solicitors added that the number of signed cases increased by 20% as a result of its investment in digital marketing and the acquisition of bike injury specialist and legal partner to Cycling UK, Cycle SOS.
Employee numbers also increased by 30% to 520 over the same period.
Group chief executive Peter Haden said: "We are making great progress on the two elements of our strategy: rapidly growing the business through investment in signing more cases and acquiring other firms, and making Fletchers smarter by investing in new technology and improving our colleague proposition. These will be our priorities during the next 12-18 months."
In September 2022, the firm added Leeds-based medical negligence law firm Minton Morill to its portfolio.
Mr Haden added: "This is the most exciting time for our sector for many years. The challenges thrown up by government reforms and the pandemic have created real opportunities for progressive businesses like ours.
"We are hugely fortunate in having an owner in Sun Capital that fully supports our strategy and is prepared to invest in people and technology to enable us to meet our long term aims."
READ MORE:
