DPA Group (DPA: NL), the Dutch staffing firm, reported revenue for the first half of the year of €78.5 million, an increase of 21.7% compared with the previous year.

The group said that its strong growth during the first half was partly due to the integration of Your Professionals, which was acquired in 2017. Your Professionals is a company that mediates professionals for permanent and interim positions within the specialization fields of finance, IT, technology, engineering and housing associations. DPA added that growth was also partly due to the sustained favourable economic development. 

“This creates increasingly scarcity on the labour market,” the company stated. 

In anticipation of this, DPA said it has invested heavily in expanding the number of salaried employees, which rose from 1,230 to 1,410 in the past twelve months. In order to facilitate this growth, considerable investments were made in indirect employees.

DPA operates in three segments: Finance & Banking, Legal & Government, and IT and Integrated Business Services (excluding Your Professionals). Results are broken down as follows:

Eric Winter, CEO of DPA, commented, "DPA achieved strong sales growth, gross profit and gross profit margin over the past six months, and it is good to see that our investments in growth are paying off and that the DPA community is becoming increasingly widespread, resulting in more synergy, relevance and effectiveness.”

"Our challenge is to continue to anticipate new developments and market demands and above all to be an attractive employer, which is why we invest a lot in training and development of professionals,” Winter said. “We develop talented young people with trainee programs in areas such as Finance, Banking & Insurance, Compliance and Business Analytics. We have also strengthened our recruitment activities with new branding and targeted labour market campaigns, and because the continuing labour market shortage can lead to more staff turnover, we are making an even stronger commitment to retaining employees. "

The group said its outlook for the second half of the year is positive. 

“Due to the stable economic conditions, the demand for flexible specialists continues to increase,” the group stated. “DPA is the right partner to help organizations quickly respond to their needs for highly qualified professionals with specific competences and skills. Because the persistent labour market shortage can lead to higher staff turnover, DPA is even more focused on retaining its professionals.”

As of last trade, DPA Group traded at €1.74, down 3.07% on the day and 10.51% above the 52-week low of €1.57 set on 2 July 2018. Based on its current share price the company has a market value of €84.07 million.