Whitehead Mann, the executive search firm, is profitable again after bouncing back from losses caused by a round of swingeing cutbacks.

Chief executive Stephen Lawrence (pictured) spearheaded a massive restructuring of the firm after he joined in November 2002.

The year ending March 2004 is the first full financial year under his stewardship and the firm seems back on the track to profitability.

Although turnover dropped from £62m in 2003 to £61m in 2004, reduced costs meant the company made a pre-tax profit of £7.6m.

Exceptional charges of nearly £3.9m meant the final pre-tax profit figure stood at £3.8m, but this is a huge improvement on last year when the firm lost a massive £20.4m before tax.

This was in part due to a redundancy programme that cost in the region of £10m as 100 jobs were cut.

There have also been significant changes at board level. Peter Foy resigned as chairman and non-executive director in September and Pendleton James retired as non-executive director at Christmas.

The firm’s founder and former chief executive Clive Mann, who led the company’s flotation in 1997, has announced he is to step down in July. The company’s most famous consultant, Dr Anna Mann, who was described as the “doyenne of the headhunting world”, also stepped down in April.

Whitehead Mann also has a new finance director, Chris Merry, who joined from Clifford Chance LLP, where he was global finance director for four years.

Lawrence said: “All our activities have shown an improvement throughout the year and in particular those based in the UK.

“Our business in Europe and Asia have performed as expected given their size, but our market position in North America still under-represents the total market.”