If you want to examine all the figures you can download the report from the Companies House website for only £1. But the salient points are:
- There's an operating profit of £3.2m for the full year (against a loss of £10.3m in 2012 / 2013). EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) showed a profit of £7.6m (2012 / 2013 loss of £5.8m). The Chairman, Robin Young, says that, "we have improved our performance on all our contracts".
- The Work Programme continued to be profitable, and they expected it to remain so for the duration of the contract.
- The A4e office in Spain was closed and they gave up on prospects of business there because the country wasn't moving to outsourcing fast enough.
- As they stated in the previous year's accounts, no dividend was paid in 2013 / 2014.
- Young talks about their "open door policy" with MPs, and says that most of the 140 visitors "have come away impressed".
- The new IT system, Connect4Work, is working well.
- Although the company originally bid for 3 contracts (Community Work Placement, Transforming Rehabilitation i.e. the Probation Service and Job Path in the Rep. of Ireland) they decided not to submit final bids - a matter, say the directors, of "discipline".
- They are optimistic about opportunities in the "market" of people with special needs.
So it seems that the strategy of reining in their ambition has worked for A4e.
