Staffline, the recruitment and training group, has hailed an “outstanding” 2024 performance in a trading update for the year ended 31 December.
Revenue passed £1bn at the firm, seeing a 12.8% increase on 2023, which Staffline said reflected “market share gains, and strength of Staffline’s business model despite a challenging market for recruitment and training.”
Gross profit increased by 9% to £88.1m, “driven by a strong performance across the Group’s recruitment activities and underpinned by an excellent result in permanent placement fees from new customers.”
Meanwhile, underlying operating profit saw a 7.8% increase to £11.1m, with stronger performance from Recruitment GB and Recruitment Ireland offsetting a weaker performance from PeoplePlus, and underlying pre-tax profit exceeded market expectations, “notwithstanding the impact of the slower than expected reduction in interest rates, which partially offset the strong underlying operating profit performance.”
Looking to 2025, Staffline believes its performance will be impacted by ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty.
Albert Ellis, Chief Executive Officer of Staffline, said: “The Group delivered an outstanding operational and financial performance in 2024, driven by increased market share and new customers combined with a disciplined approach to costs.
“The traditional peak trading period in the run up to Christmas was a success due to the Company’s commitment to service excellence. Strong trading cash flow exceeded expectations, underpinning the share buy-back programme, and resulted in £9.7m of net cash (pre-IFRS16) at the end of the year.
“Staffline remains a trusted strategic partner across a number of key sectors, both in the UK and Ireland, and I am confident that despite the challenging backdrop, our track record in continuing to increase market share will continue to support growth in 2025.”
