Wilmington Group, the information and training group, today announces its Interim Management Statement which is being made to the Group’s Annual General Meeting which is being held today.

Overall trading during the period from 1 July to date has been broadly in line with our expectations.

Trading conditions within the Legal Training business have continued to be difficult but we have now completed a detailed review of the business and initiated a plan to address the challenges and opportunities in this market.  As part of this we have recruited a new managing director, Rob Farquharson, to lead the legal and corporate training businesses.  Rob qualified as a solicitor with Clifford Chance, was a consultant at Bain & Co and for the last 7 years was at Reed Elsevier, most recently as Director of Lexis Nexis Connect.

We are reducing the Group’s cost base to deliver annualised savings of £1m per year, predominantly in the Legal Training business, with associated exceptional costs of a similar scale expected to be incurred in the current year.

The balance of our businesses both within Training & Events and Publishing & Information continue to perform well and produce excellent cash flow.  Whilst the first half year will fall short of prior year, the cost savings and management initiatives now being undertaken are expected to deliver a significant improvement for the second half. 

Together they should deliver an outcome for the year in line with current expectations for the overall business and return the Group to its growth path going forward.

At the full year we indicated our intention to strengthen our Non Executive Board.  We expect to announce appointments in this respect very shortly.