Executive search and recruitment firm Norman Broadbent (NBB: LSE) reported revenue today for the full year ending 31 December 2016 of £5.61 million. A decrease of 31.5% compared with £8.2 million during the same period last year.

In its annual report, the company states, “2016 was a challenging year, in particular the second half due to a noticeable slowdown in trading post Brexit, coupled with the exiting of a number of employees and investment in strategically important new hires. 2016 was also a year of major long lasting change in all parts of the business and included the disposal of its non-core interest in Social Media Search at the year end.”

“Following my appointment as Group CEO in April 2016 we carried out a granular review of each business within the group, the services we provided and those who delivered them,” Mike Brennan, Group Chief Executive, said. “This review focused on defining the group’s core brands on a sector-by-sector and function-by-function basis and examined how the group’s brands can develop complementary business practices, synergies and create cross selling opportunities.”

“During 2016 and the early part of 2017 we significantly restructured the business in line with the outcome of the review,” Brennan said. “This has involved the recruitment and promotion of high quality leaders for our brands and has also resulted in circa 30 members of staff exiting the group.”

Broken down by business segment revenue during the year was as follows:

Within the Norman Broadbent Executive Search segment, the group states that the revenue decline “reflected the significant personnel restructuring required to ensure that our team in the traditional core of the group became more agile and better equipped to meet and exploit the changes, challenges and opportunities available to it.”

The Norman Broadbent Solutions segment underwent significant restructuring and rebranding and the group states that the disruption from its personnel changes led to a decline in revenue.

With regards to current trading, Brennan commented, “I am pleased to report that in the first quarter of 2017 overall group revenue was ahead of the Board’s plan. Trading was down in April in part due to the greater than anticipated impact of Easter. The group has however experienced a recovery in May trading in line with the Board’s plan. The benefit of the many new hires made across the Group in Q4 2016 and Q1 2017 is expected to be realised during the second half of 2017.”

“The group’s strategy is focussed on further developing and strengthening its diverse portfolio of Talent Acquisition and Advisory businesses by further selective hires and concentrating on driving synergies via cross selling,” Brennan said.

In trading today, Norman Broadbent traded at £14.40, down 0.69% on the day and 8.57% below its 52-week high of £15.75, set on 10 May 2017. Based on its current share price the company has a market value of £6.04 million.