2023 Q3 – Challenging Swedish and Finnish consulting market

IT, once the driving force, is now facing more challenges. This is also the case for the real estate and e-commerce sectors.

– Ework, the consulting broker, reports a 21 percent decrease in the number of inquiries compared to last year. Inquiries in the public sector decreased by 26 percent. Still, certain sectors, such as energy, industry, and cybersecurity/defense, remain very strong, says Mattias Loxi, co-founder of Cinode, the leading platform for consulting firms.

The median growth averaged 6.4 percent, which is only one-third compared to a year ago (19.9 percent).

– We also observe a significant drop of 30 percent in the number of acquisitions throughout the year. Gofore and CombinedX achieved the highest growth figures, driven by a combination of acquisitions and strong organic growth. Similarly, Addnode expanded by acquiring larger companies, while Combitech, with a focus on defense, also showed significant growth.

Margin-wise, six out of ten consulting companies have lower margins. However, the quarter is affected by one less working day than last year. Only one company is operating at a loss, and many have cut costs. Softronic has the highest margin among the companies, along with Prevas and Avensia, which, despite exposure to e-commerce, have quickly been able to adapt their costs.

– Even though some cuts have been made in consulting firms, and the pace of recruitment has slowed down, most companies have increased the number of employees during the quarter. Since the beginning of the year, a third of the companies have fewer employees, concludes Mattias.

View the full compilation of consulting firms' third-quarter reports for 2023 in the infographic - https://cinode.com/en/blogg/economic-reports/2023-q3/