Independent Scottish law firm Gillespie Macandrew LLP, with offices in Edinburgh, Perth and Glasgow, has confirmed a 2% increase in turnover to £9.8m in the year to 28 February 2015.

Comparable operating profits dropped by £0.35m but average profit per equity partner, excluding a 2014 exceptional item, rose by 5% to £156k.

Chairman, Murray Shaw, said:

“Last year we invested a fair amount of effort looking at the future direction of the firm, considering options that included acquisitions, possible mergers or continued investment in developing the business organically. It was important that we made the right choice and, naturally, we spent a significant amount of time on this with the ultimate decision being to continue to develop our own business. I am pleased, therefore, to report the increase in turnover and average PEP in a period where we were not acquiring or ’bolting-on‘ other teams or firms.

“I am also pleased to report the significant improvement in our lock-up and strengthening of our cash position, which saw us end the year with over £1m in the bank and modest third party term borrowing of under £0.2m, all of which will be repaid this year. This will leave the firm debt free and in a strong position to progress the three year planned programme of strategic investments which we have already started to implement.”

Chief Executive, Chris West, said:

“On top of the 2014/15 results we have had a strong first quarter in 2015/16 with good activity across all our key business areas. We are 5% ahead of our original plan for the current year to date and actively recruiting for new staff in a number of areas including Private Client, Energy, Land & Rural Business and Housebuilder and covering all our offices.”