Harris Interactive has reported an 8.2% decline in revenue to $147.5m for the full year fiscal 2012 - a majority of which the firm says was part of a ‘right-sizing’ plan.

In a conference call this afternoon, President and CEO Al Angrisani (pictured) said that nearly $8m of the $13.2m drop in revenue was attributable to the planned reduction in the UK business, which he says has enabled management to ‘right size’ the unit and establish a foundation for going forward.

Another $2.5m of the $13.2m was in the US pharma business, which Angrisani says is one of the major sources of low-margin work in the company, and he attributed the remaining $2.5m drop in revenue to a ‘mixed bag’ of low-margin work.

Angrisani says he expects ‘aggressive growth’ in the Harris Poll and Harris Interactive Service Bureau (HISB) businesses in fiscal 2013, along with ‘modest growth’ in the Custom Solutions Group. Growth is also expected in the firm’s collective international business, but Angrisani cautions that economic events in Europe could put international into a ‘maintain mode’, or something less.

Angrisani added: ‘My experience is that in turnarounds, not all inherited - let me emphasize that word, inherited - businesses have an equal ability to grow profitably. Therefore, the process of feeding the winners and starving the losers allows us to invest, and leverage Harris Interactive’s strengths. While the first year of the turnaround has been challenging, we do have a lot more work to do and I’m hopeful that year two will make as much progress as we did in year one.’

Web site: www.harrisinteractive.com .

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