Recruitment firm’s income rise of 10% driven by demand
SHARES in all-island recruitment group CPL Resources were up almost 7% yesterday on the back of demand for both permanent and flexible workers.
Its net fee income increased 10% to €51.1m (£43m) in the six months to December 31, while revenue was up 5% to €291.4m (£246m), according to its half year report.
The Dublin-based company also has offices in Northern Ireland, where CPL Solutions International is led by Aine Brolly.
CPL Resources said “favourable” economic conditions in key markets, in particular in the tech and UK healthcare sectors, positively impacted the permanent employee arm of the business.
Its flexible talent division, which mainly covers people on temporary or specialist contracts, continued to grow as it responded to an increasing demand globally for more agile workers.
The flexible talent division now accounts for 70% of the company’s total gross profit.
In both divisions CPL’s fee income grew 10%.
In addition, a focus on controlling costs, improving margins and “increasing recruiter productivity” added to the performance.
Anne Heraty, chief executive of CPL Resources, said: “We continue to see increasing client demand for solution oriented and flexible workforce models.
“We believe that CPL is well positioned to deepen our client relationships further, both domestically and internationally.”
Looking forward, the company said it remains conscious of the impact that political, regulatory and economic events can have on its business, in particular Brexit.
It added, however, that economic indicators are broadly positive, “with high demand for talent and low unemployment rates in our most important markets”.
In 2018 the group hit the headlines when a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary showed members of its staff, who were working for Facebook, being instructed not to remove extreme, abusive or graphic content from the social media giant’s website, even though the material breached guidelines.
There has been no sign in the results and trading updates of an impact on the business as a consequence of the documentary.
Gerry Hennigan of stockbrokers Goodbody said momentum in the business would continue, helped by “a degree of respite from the political paralysis in the UK, and the underlying strength of employment in Ireland”.
And he said that the strength of CPL’s Irish franchise would enable it to “weather any Brexit headwinds better than most”.