The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is in a "very solid" financial position following its second consecutive year of profits, its finance director has claimed.

After reporting losses in 2010 and 2011, the RPS had exceeded expectations to make net profits of £227,000 in 2012 and £47,000 last year, RPS director of finance Simon Redman told members at the organisation's annual general meeting on Monday (June 23).

RPS staff had "reluctantly accepted" the need for costs to be controlled, and this had ensured the society's balance sheet remained "very robust" in 2013, he said.

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	The society suffered losses of £309,000 in 2010 and £1.1 million in 2011. After turning a profit in 2012, it had predicted losses of £230,000 in 2013, Mr Redman told the meeting.

The acquisition of its new headquarters in London's Smithfield last year generated £7m in net assets for the RPS, bringing its total assets close to £15m, Mr Redman said. This figure should increase further once the full benefits of the sale of its current headquarters in Lambeth are felt next year, he said.

Last year had marked the start of a programme of investment by the RPS in its faculty scheme and the redesign of its Pharmaceutical Press publications, Mr Redman said. This investment, which was designed to stop the "erosion" of salaries and create income opportunities, was now starting to "bear fruit", he added.

The RPS announced its intention to sell its Lambeth headquarters in 2012, as part of its ongoing effort to "improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness".

Last year, Mr Redman told members that work to refurbish the new headquarters was continuing "at a pace" to make it ready for the move in late 2014 or early 2015. He predicted that annual overheads would be £400,000 lower than they are in Lambeth.

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