diff --git a/tests/testthat.R b/tests/testthat.R
index 889790f0b..b4b1f6613 100644
--- a/tests/testthat.R
+++ b/tests/testthat.R
@@ -1,2 +1,5 @@
-library(testthat)
-test_check("rtables", reporter = "check")
+if (requireNamespace("testthat", quietly = TRUE)) {
+  library(testthat)
+  library(rtables)
+  test_check("rtables", reporter = "check")
+}
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-default_split_funs.R b/tests/testthat/test-default_split_funs.R
index d4c31703d..168ba34ba 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-default_split_funs.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-default_split_funs.R
@@ -249,6 +249,9 @@ test_that("drop_and_remove_levels also works with character variables", {
 })
 
 test_that("trim_levels_to_map split function works", {
+  skip_if_not_installed("tibble")
+  require(tibble, quietly = TRUE)
+
   map <- data.frame(
     LBCAT = c("CHEMISTRY", "CHEMISTRY", "CHEMISTRY", "IMMUNOLOGY"),
     PARAMCD = c("ALT", "CRP", "CRP", "IGA"),
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-lyt-tabulation.R b/tests/testthat/test-lyt-tabulation.R
index 578638e99..154ec2eca 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-lyt-tabulation.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-lyt-tabulation.R
@@ -237,6 +237,9 @@ test_that("labelkids parameter works", {
 
 
 test_that("ref_group comparisons work", {
+  skip_if_not_installed("tibble")
+  require(tibble, quietly = TRUE)
+
   blthing <- basic_table() %>%
     split_cols_by("ARM", ref_group = "ARM1") %>%
     analyze("AGE", show_labels = "hidden") %>%
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-printing.R b/tests/testthat/test-printing.R
index 74b4ca3b5..148f8f250 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-printing.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-printing.R
@@ -801,6 +801,9 @@ test_that("horizontal separator is propagated from table to print and export", {
 ## higher-level showing ncols works:
 
 test_that("showing higher-level ncols works", {
+  skip_if_not_installed("tibble")
+  require(tibble, quietly = TRUE)
+
   mydat <- subset(ex_adsl, SEX %in% c("M", "F"))
   mydat$SEX2 <- factor(
     ifelse(
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-subset-access.R b/tests/testthat/test-subset-access.R
index c56f297eb..f136dc6ef 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-subset-access.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-subset-access.R
@@ -136,6 +136,9 @@ test_rowpaths <- function(tt, visonly = TRUE) {
 
 
 test_that("make_row_df, make_col_df give paths which all work", {
+  skip_if_not_installed("tibble")
+  require(tibble, quietly = TRUE)
+
   lyt <- basic_table() %>%
     split_cols_by("ARM") %>%
     split_cols_by("SEX", ref_group = "F") %>%