KnowledgePool reports strong financial results
Learning services company KnowledgePool today announced strong financial results for its first full year of trading since it became an independent business under private equity ownership.
KnowledgePool differs from traditional training delivery providers as it provides a full vendor-independent portfolio of learning services. Its broad range of offerings may be used collectively to provide a complete training service, or individually to satisfy specific client requirements. In addition to sourcing large Managed Service contracts, KnowledgePool provides specialist consultancy in areas such as skills management, performance analysis and learning evaluation, as well as its heritage offerings in the design and delivery of large, complex training programmes. In a difficult trading climate, KnowledgePool achieved an operating profit each quarter and finished the year with a £200,000 net profit on a turnover of £7m.
Rod Edwards, Chief Executive of KnowledgePool, said: “I am extremely pleased with our results this year. They represent a significant achievement, particularly when so many of our competitors have been losing money, shedding staff, cutting salaries and in some cases going out of business. Our ability to be profitable in these hard times is testament to our focus on creating value for our clients. We’re a strong company with over 40 years’ experience in the training industry which has been re-invigorated since our re-launch 2 years ago. These financial results, coupled with our recent contract wins, confirms that our strategy is sound and on track. Our operating model and approach means we are well placed to succeed in both good and bad economies.”
The highlights for the financial year, which ended 30 September 2005, include running a major blended learning programme to help 18,000 civil servants at the Home Office upgrade to Windows XP and Office XP from older versions of the software; conducting the 500th training needs analysis study for Lloyds TSB, in an ongoing outsourcing contract which has been running since 2001; providing induction training at Orange for 1,000 new customer service representatives in six months and adding over 1,000 instructor-led and online courses, from recognised training vendors, to its searchable online catalogue, to create the UK’s biggest ‘live schedule’ online booking system for training.
“Numerous Blue Chip clients have achieved cost savings and efficiency gains by outsourcing their training to us,” said Rod Edwards. “Our customer service team, supported by a web-based suite of software and support services, has proved popular with clients who want to automate the process of selecting and administering training and learning activities. The last financial year has been extremely positive for KnowledgePool and we now move forward into 2006 in great shape, continuing to focus our investment into our staff and our offerings to achieve future growth.”