French online staffing group Freelance.com (ASX: FLN.AX) reported an annual revenue of € 43.8 million for the year 2014. A slight decrease  of -2% compared with the previous year as sales suffered from declining demand in H2-2014.

Strong performance in Morocco helped offset the decline the business faced in France. In addition, the Provigis business line experienced an organic growth of 24%. Provigis provides cloud-based electronic document storage and handling to improve performance and ensure compliance at all stages of the relationship between buyers and suppliers.

Gross profit increased by 4%, amounting to €4.7 million. While gross margin improved to 10.7% in 2014, compared with 10.2% a year earlier. This increase is mainly the result of continued improved margins in the intermediation of highly skilled consultants (‘portage salarial’) and a higher contribution from the Provigis business line.

EBITDA increased by 20.8% and reached €772,000 in 2014, driven by the improved profitability of historical activities and portage salarial. This improvement allowed Freelance.com to continue its investment to develop Provigis further, through the increase of the sales force and as well as staff in charge of controlling the compliance of documents provided by suppliers. These investments impacted the group's EBITDA by €253,000.

Operating profit amounted to €222,000 in 2014, an increase of €95,000 (74%) compared to 2013. After accounting for net exceptional charges €116,000, compared with € 152,000 in 2013, net income from consolidated companies remains positive (€11,000).

On the occasion of the publication of the annual accounts 2014, André Martinie, President and CEO of Freelance.com, comments:

"In 2014, we continued to improve the profitability of our historical activities, freelancing and portage salarial, despite a market environment more challenging than in the past two years. In 2014 the legal status of portage salarial, our second largest activity by sales, was temporarily suspended. This has enabled us to continue to invest in our new cloud certification offerings Provigis, and the results are starting to materialise in the group's accounts. At the beginning of the year 2015, the economic environment remains sluggish in France. The Group was impacted by lower order volume from the telecom industry, which is engaged in a phase of mergers and major acquisitions.

After months of intense negotiations, the government published on 2^nd April 2015, the ordinance that clarifies the legal status of portage salarial. Therefore, we believe this activity will pick up steam in H2 2015, after a slow start of the year.

Finally, the group continues investing aggressively in the development of Provigis, whose growth was accelerating earlier this year. "