Irish recruitment firm Cpl Resources (CPL: ID) announced results yesterday for the full year ended 30 June 2018 with revenue of €522.7 million, an increase of 15% compared to last year.

John Hennessy, Chairman of Cpl Resources, commented, "The group's results for the year ended 30 June 2018 show double-digit growth across all key metrics, reflecting strong growth across our business sectors and markets. This performance reflects the clear focus by our team on continuing to grow our business, evolving our product offering to meet shifting workforce preferences and concentrating on managing our cost base and improving margins.

During the year, the group highlighted continued growth in the flexible talent segment, representing 68.4% of gross profit. Cpl pointed to a continued growth of global demand for flexible labour solutions, with flexible talent fee income growing by 24.5% during the year.

“The impact of changes in regulation in the UK healthcare sector continue to be felt, contributing to modest permanent fee growth to €26.3 million (2017: €26.1 million),” Cpl stated. “Our operating profit margin is in line with the previous financial year at 3.4%, which, given the shifting mix of business from permanent recruitment to flexible talent solutions, is a positive performance.”

Earlier in FY 2018, the group returned €25.0 million of cash to its shareholders by way of a fixed price tender offer.

During FY 2018, the group also appointed Lorna Conn as Group CFO in October 2017 and to the Board in July 2018.

Anne Heraty, CEO of Cpl Resources, also commented, “After returning €25 million to shareholders by way of fixed price tender offer, we closed the year with a net cash balance of €24.2 million demonstrating the strong cash generating characteristics of the business.”

“Our vision as we grow is to be the world's best at transforming our clients through total talent solutions and experiences,” Heraty said. “As the world of work evolves and employee and employer expectations change, the demand for flexibility has strengthened. As a result, we grew our flexible talent net fee income by 24.5% to €56.9 million during the year (2017: €45.7 million). We finished the year with 12,296 skilled people working on behalf of Cpl on client engagements."

Looking ahead, Hennessy commented, “Economic indicators and employment trends are broadly positive in our principal markets. Our industry remains highly competitive and our continued growth is sensitive to the impact of political, regulatory and economic events globally. With the terms of the UK's planned departure from the EU still unclear, Brexit continues to give rise to uncertainty. We will continue to monitor developments closely and assess and respond to their implications for our business.”

“Current market conditions are favourable with high demand for talent and low unemployment rates in our key markets. We expect that these factors, together with the efforts of our people, will allow us to deliver further growth in our business during the financial year to 30 June 2019,” Hennessy said.

In trading yesterday CPL Resources traded at €6.16, no change on the day and 8.83% above its 52-week low of €5.66, set on 4 May 2018. Based on its current share price the company has a market value of €167.38 million.