Profits slide at recruiter SThree but firm hires more sales staff
SHARES in recruitment firm SThree sank 5.08 per cent yesterday after the white-collar specialist posted a 17 per cent slide in annual profits to £21m.
The company said a tough jobs market in its core IT and finance businesses weighed on its results, though this was offset by growth in new offices overseas.
Earnings in the UK and Ireland fell 10.5 per cent, as SThree cut back on staffing permanent posts.
The decline in profits does not include one-off items such as the cost of office closures and support staff redundancies.
Despite back office job cuts, a hiring spree for sales staff in recent months helped boost SThree’s overall headcount by 10 per cent to 2,327 by the end of 2013.
Group revenues rose 9.8 per cent to £634.3m, an increase of 8.2 per cent once the extra week in the financial year is stripped out.
“While the group performance reflects the mixed market conditions which we encountered during the year, it was also a period of significant strategic progress during which we laid the foundations for our future growth,” said chief executive Gary Elden.
Analysts at Numis said the pre-tax profit figure “was at the low end of the previous guidance range, [but] we believe the outlook is showing clear signs of an improving market trend”.