Staffline losses widen amid ‘challenging’ market

Staffline, the Nottingham-based recruitment firm, has seen losses before tax widen and revenues fall slightly for the six month until the end of June.

The firm called marketing conditions “challenging” as it posted losses before tax £4.3m – up from £1m last year, while revenue fell by just under 1% to £434.1m.

Staffline said that full year trading is in line with market expectations.

Albert Ellis, CEO of Staffline, said: “The business has delivered a resilient first half performance amidst a challenging market environment for the recruitment industry. Our management team has demonstrated exceptional leadership by securing new business wins, implementing significant structural and cost changes across all businesses, and strengthening customer relationships with a focus on service delivery. These actions have underpinned the board’s confidence in full year trading being in line with expectations, alongside implementing a £4m share buyback programme.

“We anticipate better trading conditions in the second half of the year with improved consumer confidence stimulating growth. Whilst the outlook for permanent recruitment is more subdued, a number of new temporary staffing contract opportunities are currently in the pipeline, in addition to the seasonal boost expected in the final half of the year including the Women’s Football and Men’s Rugby World Cups.

“There is no question, the broader economic environment in the UK and Ireland will continue to dominate headlines. However, with the increasing return to work of many classified as economically inactive in the most recent ONS labour market report, we are cautiously optimistic that the tight labour market is starting to ease and this will support the economy going forward.”