Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) is back in the black after increasing profit to £700,000 following it posting a £5m loss during 2014.
Despite increasing profits CLS saw turnover fall 14.3 per cent, from £21m in 2014 to £18m last year.
CLS attributed the fall in turnover to refocusing the business on its “core service propositions”. These include a number of consumer law services such as conveyancing, will writing, personal injury and probate.
As part of the refocus the firm acquired estate planning specialists Collective Legal Solutions. It is unknown how much the Co-operative paid for the business, which included 100 associates and support colleagues.
A statement made in CLS’s financial accounts claim that profitability was limited to £700,000 due to the investment it made in its digital offering.
Managing director of CLS Matt Howells said: “This is an exciting time for the business. For the first time in three years Co-op Legal Services has returned to profitability.
“The annual results announced today were in line with expectations and reflect our on-going work to rebuild the legal services business. We made a number of technology and digital investments into the business including upgrading our core IT platform Proclaim and re-launching our new mobile and tablet enabled website.”
CLS became the first alternative business structure (ABS) to enter the in-house legal market place in 2012. Shortly after gaining its ABS licence the legal provider revealed poor financial results and announced a loss of £3.4m for the first of half of 2013.
At the time a spokesperson for CLS said the loss was due to the business expanding its family law practice. As part of the firm’s refocus this year CLS decided not to renew its family legal aid contracts stating that developing its range of services in this area would “require significant investment”.