14th Jul 2014 09:51
LONDON (Alliance News) - Recruitment company SThree PLC Monday reported a higher profit and revenue for the first-half of the year, boosted by strong growth in its contract staffing business and sales headcount, particularly in the Americas.
The company posted a pretax profit of GBP8.2 million for the six months to June 1, compared with GBP6.7 million a year earlier.
Profit in the period was boosted by a 17% increase in revenue to GBP341.7 million, up from GBP291.9 million the prior year. Revenue on a like-for-like basis was up 18%. SThree said growth was driven by a strong seasonal recovery in contractor runners and sale headcount.
"The group performance improved during the first half as the economic recovery gained momentum in a number of our markets... During the second half, we are focusing on driving up the productivity of new hires, particularly in permanent, with headcount growth moderating," said Chief Executive Gary Elden in a statement.
The company maintained its interim dividend at 4.7 pence per share.
SThree said the Americas has a strong first-half, while its contract staffing business made further progress in all territories as it continued to benefit from a greater strategic focus and increasing exposure to new global high growth markets, particularly Energy and Life Sciences.
The recruitment company said it had increased its sales headcount by 20% compared to the previous year, as it sought to make sure that its contracted work base had adequate resources to keep up with accelerating growth, and it continued to rebuild its permanent worker base.
As a result of its investment in headcount the company said it would carry additional costs for the remainder of the year as the new hires become fully productive.
SThree shares were down 3.5% at 381.25 pence Monday morning.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
STHR.L