Dutch staffing firm Brunel International (BRNL: NL) reported revenue for the second quarter ending 30 June 2017 of €188.9 million, a decrease of 19% in constant currency (CC) compared with €231.2 million during the same period last year.

The group reported gross margin for the second quarter this year of 21.0% compared to 20.6% in the second quarter of 2016.

Earlier in the year, Brunel announced that the Energy division has been renamed as the Global Business division in order to “reflect the diversification in our global infrastructure”.

Revenue broken down by division is as follows:

In Brunel’s Global Business, the group stated that, in Australia and South East Asia, significant projects were largely completed in the course of Q2. “We are working on several initiatives to speed up our diversification,” Brunel stated. “We expect that some of these initiatives will start contributing in the second half of the year.”

Gross profit for the group’s Global Business fell to €9.2 million, a decrease of 30% compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, gross margin improved slightly to 11.4% from 11.1% last year as a result of a “change in the mix, both across the globe and between activities”.

In Brunel Europe, which consists of Brunel Germany, Brunel Netherlands, Brunel Belgium, Brunel Czech Republic, Brunel Switzerland and Brunel Austria, gross profit fell to €30.4 million, a decrease of 11% compared to the previous year. Gross margin fell to 28.2% this year from 30.9% last year.

In Brunel Germany, revenue in Q2 fell by 2% to €52.0 million, compared to last year, with the group attributing the decline to adjustments made after the adoption of Germany’s employment law in April.  “On 1 April, the new law came into effect and to comply we had to renew our union trade agreement,” the group stated. “Some of our customers have suspended us as supplier until we had our new union trade agreement in place, what caused a temporary hiccup in the growth. We finalised the renewal at the end of July. This renewed agreement offers us a strong competitive advantage.”

In Brunel Netherlands, revenue fell to €46.6 million, a 5% decline compared to last year. “The revenue development is a mix of a decline in freelancers (impact -10%) and growth in own employees (impact +5%),” the group stated.

Brunel added that the Netherlands will return to revenue growth from Q3 onwards, and Germany will continue to grow. For Global Business, the group expects revenue to remain flat for the next couple of months until the impact of Brunel’s new initiatives becomes visible. “There is some uncertainty around the timing of the first revenues from these initiatives, but we expect to achieve an EBIT of at least €15 million for the full year,” Brunel stated.

“We knew the first half year would be tough, but we have reached the bottom of the trough sooner than expected,” Jan Arie van Barneveld, CEO of Brunel International, said. “Our actual performance has been improving day by day. With Europe on a growth track, and all the initiatives in Global Business, I’m confident that we will return to sustainable growth pretty quickly.”

In trading today Brunel International set a new 52-week low during today's trading session when it reached €11.56. Over this period, the share price is down -29.79%. As of last trade, Brunel traded at €11.77, down 3.25% on the day. Based on its current share price the company has a market value of €605.6 million.