PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), the market leading professional services firm, today announced turnover¹ growth of 4% to £2,331m up from £2,248m in the previous year, with underlying net revenue² also increasing 4% to £2,069m.

Ian Powell, PwC UK Chairman and Senior Partner, commented:

“Notwithstanding a tough year for our clients and our business, we’ve delivered a good, solid set of results given the economic and market backdrop. We stayed close to our clients through this testing period and continued to invest in the future of our business. These investments included the recruitment in the UK of 1,750 people, 57 new partners, a strategic alliance with our Middle East network firms, a new and environmentally leading London office and the acquisition of the Paragon consulting business.

“Despite the challenging environment, our advisory business achieved strong turnover growth of 9% to £804m (including a 15% increase in net revenues for our consulting business), our assurance business performed well, achieving turnover growth of 4% to £893m while our tax practice saw a small decline of 2% to £634m.  The 2% decline in our partner profit share from £777,000 to £759,000 reflects our investment strategy.

“We consider this a good performance given market conditions.

“We are under no illusion that there remain challenges ahead.  However, in the next twelve months we intend to create 800 new jobs across our businesses to enhance the services and value we offer to our clients. 

“Competition in our markets remains fierce and we recognise that we need to continue to demonstrate to our clients that we can deliver the quality and value they demand.”

Highlights from the 2009/2010 financial year include;

• Placed first in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers survey;
• Voted number one in the Guardian’s UK300 survey at the National Graduate Target Awards;
• The highest and only ranked professional services firm in this year’s Business Superbrands listing at number 10;
• Fourth in The Sunday Times Best Companies survey, an increase from seventh position in the previous year;
• Admitted 57 new full equity partners including 19 direct entry partners;
• 4,865 of our people donated over 42,000 hours to a wide range of activities focused on education, employability and environment, in addition to their personal volunteering efforts;
• Total community contributions totalled £8.1million (cash, time and in-kind support) compared with £7.9m in FY09.

Ian Powell, PwC UK Chairman and Senior Partner, added:

“While we see some signs of an economic recovery, the continued competitiveness of the UK economy remains challenging.  Ensuring that the UK is seen as ‘open for business’ will determine the future success of our own firm and the UK economy.  The government is clearly addressing the debt burden and making spending cuts is unavoidable, but the emphasis must be on investing to accelerate business growth in the interests of the UK’s long-term economic health. I remain convinced that as a firm we took the right decision last year to hold our nerve and continue to recruit and invest in our business. As a business, we have been able to build momentum which means we are well placed to focus on the significant growth opportunities we have identified.”

ENDS