Coffin Mew

South-east firm Coffin Mew saw turnover drop 3.5 per cent in the 2011–12 financial year, from £11.2m in 2010–11 to £10.8m the following year. Net profit, however, increased for the second year in a row, up 12 per cent to £2.44m.

This was largely due to the firm being on its second year of a three-year cost-reduction strategy, the aim being to see average profit per equity partner (PEP) reach between £180,000 and £190,000. PEP also rose 46 per cent year on year from £86,000 in 2010–11 to £128,000 in 2011–12.

Managing partner Miles Brown said the firm had benefited from offering more fixed-priced work for clients, moving away from operating primarily on an hourly basis. While he expected social housing to be a slow area of growth in 2011–12 following government funding cuts, the firm took on a major new client in the 2011–12 financial year, the Church of England, which is expected to generate a substantial chunk of work in the year ahead.

The firm launched a ‘client excellence’ programme in 2012 that saw management trial a mystery-shopper-style telephone service aimed at improving client experience and benchmarking the firm against competitors.