Healthy outlook for recruitment group with profits up 11%
IRISH recruitment firm Cpl has seen its profits rising by 11% to €9m (£7.8m).
The firm, which has offices in Belfast and Newry, also saw revenues rise 12% to €257m (£223m), in the half year to December 31.
Cpl employs around 20 staff in Northern Ireland.
Overall, gross profit rose by 12% to €40.5m (£35.4m).
The firm said its revenues included the acquisition of RIG Healthcare Group, which it took on last year.
Aine Brolly, chief executive of Cpl in Northern Ireland, said: “The group continues to work with clients to understand their specific requirements and with our candidates in order to match their skills to those client requirements.
“The proportion of our net fee income that is made up of temporary fees has increased from 63% in the same period last year to 68%, driven primarily by RIG’s revenue mix but also by organic growth across our sectors.
“This shift in our business
model is reflective of a global move toward the ‘gig economy’ and greater flexibility for client and candidate alike. We also improved the margin on our temporary business to 11.3%.
“As we move into the second half of our financial year we are closely monitoring activity levels in all of our markets.”
She added: “We remain conscious of the impact of political, regulatory and economic events globally on our business. Positive momentum in the Irish and Eurozone labour markets should position the group well for further growth across its key business sectors.
“We remain confident in the outlook for the business and expect to deliver continued profitable growth for the remainder of the financial year.
“In Northern Ireland we have restructured and reshaped the business to support expansion in the market through our strategy of rapid growth, including the potential for the acquisition of locally based recruitment companies.”
The company has invested “significantly in its technology platform over the past few years and is pioneering one of the first artificial intelligence tools in the recruitment sector”.
It comes as the latest official job figures here show the number of people signing on for unemployment benefits has gone up for the first time in five years.
The claimant count was 29,200 in December, up by 100 from November and the first increase since January 2013.